


Apocalypse Suite - Secrets Revealed

by Starlord_451



Series: Soulmate AU [2]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst, Ben ships Kliego, Canon Divergent, Child Abuse, Drug Use, Drug Withdrawal, Hurt/Comfort, Incest, Klaus Hargreeves Deserves Better, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Multi, Overdose, Pining, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Sad but with a happy ending, Slow Burn, Soulmate AU, Suicidal Tendencies, Torture, eventually, irregular updates, quite slow so beware
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:13:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 38,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27398554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starlord_451/pseuds/Starlord_451
Summary: Klaus put the guitar down and Five’s gaze slipped on his arm, the words he had wrote on himself after the shit show that was the funeral still bright pink on his skin.Tell me more about youAs Five’s gaze lingered on it, Klaus couldn’t help but feel more vulnerable than he had in years.“So you’re still clueless to who that is?” Five asked, a tone in his voice that he really couldn’t distinguish.“Awfully so. I hope that they look at least a little bit like Banderas or Keira Knightley, but that’s just stuff for the spunk bank.”“You’re disgusting.”OrThe Hargreeves will soon understand that the Apocalypse is the last of their worries as a timeless enemy uses the red strings of destinity against them.
Relationships: (eventual) Number Five | The Boy/Vanya Hargreeves, (secondary) Allison Hargreeves/Luther Hargreeves, Allison Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves & Luther Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves/Klaus Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Diego Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Klaus Hargreeves
Series: Soulmate AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1990477
Comments: 45
Kudos: 124





	1. Do You Dance?

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there!  
> So excited to finally post this work :3 I have already written most of the chapters so I should be able to update regularly once a week! I would strongly recommend reading the first fic ("I Don't Need You") before starting this one. If you don't want to, here is a list of what you need to know: 
> 
> 1)The soulmate bond initally manifests itself with being able to read whatever the other writes on their arm. To really function and develop, both soulmates need to write on the arm at least once. When they do the bond is "open" and they can feel the other's presence in their soul. If correctely nurtured the bond can develop and the connection between the two soulmates can grow very strong.  
> 2) Hargreeves initally forbids the children to contact their soulmates, and then begins to make experiments on their bonds. The children he experiments on the most are Ben and Five since they were both caught in having opened their bond.  
> 3) Luther and Allison discover that they are soulmate and open their bond in secret. Ben's death is indirectly caused by their bond (meaning that Ben's death was an awful accident on a mission, but Hargreeves guilt-trips them into thinking that by opening and hiding their bond they have killed their brother). After Ben's death, Allison and Luther feel too guilty and decide to sever the connection  
> 4) Diego is contacted by his soulmate very early on. His soulmate claims to be a certain "Eric". Diego is very traumatized by their Dad's teachings on the danger of soulmates and also by the experiments on their bond so for many years he never opens the connection (meaning that he never writes back to his soulmate). When Ben dies Diego finally writes back and opens the bond only to tell his soulmate to stop writing to him. Diego ignores the bond and so it becomes very, very weak. At some point, after he leaves the academy and the police academy, he feels like his bond is temporarly severed and, scared of the awful feeling, he finally writes back to his soulmate after years of silence.

**October 5, 1989 - Berlin East**

_The aircraft landed on a deserted place, in front of what looked like a forgotten church on the outskirts of a broken city._

_Curious men were watching the strange vehicle, hidden behind alleyways and closed windows, calculating the risks of getting caught stealing it or whatever there was inside it._

_A lonely nun stood in front the ship, a grim and tense expression colouring her old wrinkled face._

_Reginald Hargreeves stepped outside, looking around him with triumph in his eyes. He walked towards the old woman with purpose as soon as he spotted her, his cane clicking with every step he took._

_“Where’s the child?” he spoke in a loud voice, breaking the eerie silence._

_“The Devil. This child is marked by the Devil’s hands.” Her words were spoken with anguish and a fear that seemed to go unnoticed by Hargreeves._

_“Where is it?” he repeated in German, irritated by the waste of time. He had others to find._

_The nun led him to a small door beside the church, opening it with a loud creaking sound. The place was freezing, the fog seemed to have creeped its way inside as well, getting thicker and heavier the further they went._

_Finally, the old nun opened a wooden door, revealing a cold and bare room with a lonely curb in the middle of it, where a baby was wailing desperately._

_“No one would come close to it.” The nun whispered, standing frozen outside of the room._

_Reginald ignored her, stepping inside and taking the new-born in his hands, checking for any visible injury or malfunction._

_“This is no place for the Devil’s Child.” The old nun spat. “Take it away.”_

_The foolish woman didn’t know what she had just given him._

_Without a look in her direction, he returned with certain steps to the aircraft, ready to continue his search of the 43 children._

_Shooing away the poor men that had the courage to get closer to his ship, he wasted no time in departing yet again._

_Had he been more careful, maybe he would have noticed it. Right behind the broken window of the building next to church._

_Silver hair on a young face. A weird hat and a victorious red grin._

* * *

**March 12, 2019 – Rehab Center**

“Hargreeves”

Finally.

Klaus sighed contentedly as he jumped off the bed, smiling for the first time in thirty days. He winked at Ben’s direction, earning himself a groan and a plead that he would just pretend not to hear, his brother was getting too repetitive. He really needed to find something new to groan at him in his dead voice of his.

He flirted with his bunk mates, because they were both quite good looking and you never know who could help you out in the streets, he preferred to have friends rather than enemies.

The man at the reception (Carl? Or Marv? Ugh, never mind) threw the coin at him with a resigned face and hey, didn’t he look exactly like Ben right now?

“You know we could just use the money you stole from Mark to have a nice dinner somewhere. You look too skinny”

“I look amazing, brother dear, and the only thing that’s going to touch this tongue are pills. I deserved them.”

“You don’t… Klaus! Please.”

“What?? I’ve been sober for thirty days, Ben! THIRTY!” he shouted, opening the exit doors to freedom.

Most people had already left the cold air of the night to find refuge in their homes, leaving the streets with only a few passers-by, enveloped in their heavy coats and large scarfs.

But to Klaus the streets were always busy, bursting with activity and wails, lonely figures staggering and crying. There was a time when Klaus had found very difficult to tell the dead from the living, but now he almost wished he wasn’t able to discern them so well from one another.

Tucking his furry coat closer to him, he ventured into the alleys that went unlooked, feeling his body tingling with the promise of numbness and silence.

“You could continue by staying sober” Ben scolded, getting more and more restless. “Come on, Klaus”

“You’re starting to get boring, Ben! Why would I want to stay sober anyway? So I can look at that lot?”

He pointed at a group of ghosts, perched by a garbage can, some had gunshots in their stomachs, others had a blue tinge in their lips.

At least they weren’t as bad as the one in the rehab center, a starved looking girl with a rope tight on her neck. She kept screaming his name, bringing him back to a cold place he’d rather forget about.

Rehab centers were usually full of ghosts. Not as much as hospitals, but very close.

The first time Diego sent him to rehab, Klaus was almost convinced of actually trying to give sobriety a go. After the first night without drugs in his system, the medium had counted at least five ghosts, who all committed suicide, urging him to do the same.

It went unsaid that Klaus wasn’t a fan of those places anymore. Or sobriety in general.

If there was one advantage of being sober, that would be the comfort he took from feeling his soulmate bond again, though that did come with the price of complete and utter rejection.

No matter what his family thought, Klaus wasn’t _that_ scared of the ghosts. Well he was - who wouldn’t be? - but he got used to their presence, he had lived all his life amongst them.

Seeing the dead wasn’t enough to make him an addict for life. His soulmate rejecting him had done it.

_I don’t need you_

Those words rang clear in his head every time he lingered on the slow thrum of his bond, the second presence in his soul that was there but didn’t want him, they had turned him away.

The need for drugs had come after his trauma in the mausoleum, when he had discovered the bliss of alcohol and the peace of weed.

The pull for heavier drugs had come with Ben’s death and the utter desperation he had felt at losing his best friend.

His absolute refusal of getting sober ever again was due to the discovery that drugs not only cancelled his powers but they weakened his connection to the soulmate bond as well.

No longer did he need to live with the remainder of constant rejection by the only person in the world who was supposed – who was destined – to love him, no longer should he feel the humiliation of being the only one to care for the bond. He had a way to escape this nightmare.

So yes, he did turn to the numbness of drugs to escape the ghosts, but the main reason behind it was his need to pretend that being rejected by his own soulmate didn’t hurt so much.

When he was high off his mind, the weight of not being needed wasn’t so heavy on his shoulders and it felt _good_.

However, as soon as the drugs faded away, the weak beating of the bond returned, bringing a foreign promise of unknown warmth and comfort.

Allison had once told him that giving in to the bond was the best feeling there was. To be as one, to feel two souls completely blend into one another, your hearts beating at the same time.

What he was feeling was only a shadow of a true shared bond.

There was only Klaus’ effort in there, there was only Klaus’ care and commitment. The other one was missing. His soulmate had opened his side of the bond, but only to push it down, avoiding it and forgetting it whenever possible.

Klaus’ breath itched and, as if he was giving a last goodbye to his sacred bond, latched onto the thrum of his soul a bit more securely, feeling it slowly unravel in his mind, weak but there.

Without wasting anymore time, he found his favourite dealer and gave him all the money he had, squealing when he felt the safe weight of the plastic bag full of pills in his HELLO hand.

He was so happy he could cry.

He hopped away, and found a secure spot beside a garbage can, sheltered from the unforgiving wind.

He took three pills in his mouth, ignoring Ben’s constant pleading to “Take them one at a time, at least!”.

Yes.

His mind was free, he could already feel his connection with Ben falter slightly before he made sure the grab it back again, the comfort of having his brother beside him was something he was too selfish to let go of even when he knew that Ben hated seeing him like this.

_You could walk out_ , Klaus had told him once, _I wouldn’t stop you_.

But Ben had only looked at him with sad eyes revealing that he was too afraid of finding him dead at his return.

Klaus felt the soulmate bond become very distant and flicker, he could almost pretend it wasn’t there at all. That was good.

There was another thing that high Klaus could do that sober him really couldn’t. He had finally the courage, well not courage but carelessness, to write to his asshole soulmate. High Klaus wouldn’t care about the lack of answers.

To be fair, after his first overdose – when he had been clinically dead for about a minute – his soulmate had finally decided to answer him sometimes.

It was usually brief and monosyllabic, but Klaus had never been happier. Even if they were insults most of the time, telling him to stop scribbling his arms, that he had to go to work and couldn’t have a drawing of a penis on his forearm.

_What’s your job?_ Klaus had asked but his soulmate ended the conversation, leaving him once again alone, rejected.

He picked up the pen from his leather pants and started writing, anything that came to his mind, maybe something would catch his attention and he could have another answer.

_I’m finally free_

He knew his handwriting wasn’t the best right now, his hand was shaking like a leaf. Was it because of the cold or the drugs?

_Is it cold?_

He wrote, leading a one-sided conversation like so many times in the past.

_I think it is._

He took another pill, he knew he wouldn’t get an answer. Ben said something, but Klaus didn’t hear him or maybe he simply didn’t care.

How long had he been sitting there? Time was very weird. It felt like months, or maybe seconds. His legs felt stiff.

The pen fell on the ground and Klaus cursed slightly.

_Do you even care?_

He wrote once his shaky fingers started collaborating again.

They were taking so long to answer and Ben was looking at him with worry in his eyes, why was he worried?

Klaus was fine with his drugs, he was happy. Speaking of drugs, he popped another pill because he was _feeling_ too much and he didn’t like it.

Why weren’t they answering? Why did they hate him so much?

“Klaus, they don’t hate you. They’re probably just busy. Now put the pills away. Please. You’re taking too many.”

Oh. Had he spoken out loud? He didn’t realize it.

Ben was so close he couldn’t ignore him. He laughed and hoped that it hid the tears. Busy. Yes, of course they were busy. Of course.

He took another pill and let the refreshing darkness take over him, Ben’s shouts very far away.

When he woke up he did it laughing. Now he could really feel the high. Finally.

He high fived the paramedic, just because he was still feeling giddy.

His chest hurt a bit but whatever, he didn’t mind. He breathed again and his earing started working properly, the sound of the ambulance wailing, the huffs of the tired paramedic, his own strained breaths and the noise from the small screen.

He took in his surroundings, feeling the need to just jump and never stop, maybe run or eat a thousand donuts.

Ben was looking at him with an angry stare, sitting beside the small screen. Oh, well. He could apologize later.

He heard the name Hargreeves, and wow did the paramedic really managed to recognize him? The last time he met an Umbrella Academy fan that could tell who he was had been before he reached his twenties.

“Klaus” Ben broke his silence, pointing to the screen.

Ah, so the name came from the TV, not from the paramedic. Made sense.

He focused on the news.

* * *

**May 20, 1996 – The Academy**

_“Show me your arm, Number Four” Hargreeves asked hand in front of him, waiting for his child to comply._

_Klaus showed him, hoping that he wouldn’t notice the skin being redder than usual. That night, after his umpteenth attempt at contacting his soulmate, he had scrabbed it raw, too afraid of his Dad finding out._

_Hargreeves inspected it closely, clenching it hard in his hand, eliciting a wince from the small child._

_“Would it be so bad? To meet our soulmate?”_

_Klaus couldn’t help asking._

_He knew Ben’s had answered back and he wanted his brother to find her and be happy. He would help him find her no matter what, even it meant that they had to go against their Dad, however terrifying that prospect was._

_Klaus hadn’t been so lucky with his soulmate yet, but he was going to try again until he had an answer from them._

_Hargreeves’ eyes hardened._

_“Don’t be foolish, Number Four. Do you think a soulmate should come before your mission of saving the world?”_

_“No, but they…”_

_“Stop it, Number Four. This childish dream of yours has to end.”_

_Klaus didn’t back down from the harsh words, staring his father dead in the eyes. Hargrevees’ gaze turned cruel very quickly._

_“I think it’s time for your individual training to set your priorities straight.”_

* * *

**March 13, 2019 – The Academy**

The last time Klaus saw his Dad’s office – hell, last time he had set foot in the _Academy_ – he had been seventeen.

Wandering through the empty halls, watching his Mum from afar and sitting in his old bed had felt like an out-of-body experience. Was this a nightmare?

He had thought a lot about going to the funeral.

His immediate reaction had been a big fat capital No. Why should he?

But he knew that Ben missed their siblings, and Klaus couldn’t deny him the possibility of seeing them again.

The ghost was still angry with him from his small death last night and he was punishing him with the silent treatment. Klaus hated it. Well, Ben would just be another person that didn’t want to talk to him. What difference did one more make, after all?

His soulmate had scolded him again last night and hey, at least Klaus managed to get a reaction out of them. He kept his _idiot_ and _moron_ close to his heart, staring dumbly at the words for the three whole hours they had on his arm.

And here he was. The office was as cold and lifeless as he remembered. Thank God, he was still high from his morning dose.

As much as he hated the place, he had a goal to attain before any of his siblings realized he was already there.

Money. That’s what he was getting out of his trip in this bleak place.

He was positive that his father had found the way to withhold his inheritance, making sure that Klaus would never see as much of a penny from his dear old papa, but the medium was nothing but resourceful.

Without further ado, he went through the room, scanning the old desk closely.

“Think everyone will come?” Ben mused, looking at the painting.

Oh, so he talked.

Klaus hid his happiness at hearing his brother’s voice and started rummaging through the desk frantically, already tired of being there.

“I don’t see why they wouldn’t. It’s such a happy occasion after all, isn’t it?”

Ben shook his head, inspecting the books their father kept in the library. Nerd.

“Do you think he really died of a heart attack?” Ben asked.

“I couldn’t care less. Where the fuck did he hid his money?”

Of course he didn’t find it, but he did make up for it with pockets full of rich looking objects to pawn.

Meeting his siblings had gone as well as expected. He really hoped that Ben had at the very least enjoyed seeing everyone again.

Allison had looked wonderful.

Klaus felt a pang in his heart as he was suddenly reminded of just how much he had missed her. Apart from Diego and Ben, Allison was the one Klaus would turn to the most. Of course, as it happened with everyone connected to the academy, his relationship with her had turned sour and bitter, poisoned by too many bad memories and a dark guilt that seemed to follow them all wherever they went.

He remembered the afternoons spent gossiping, the first time he tried on make-up, how she had comforted him and assured him that it was okay if he wanted to be pretty, there was nothing wrong with it. He remembered how she had confided in him that her soulmate was Luther and that she was planning on running with him, far away from their father and his experiments.

He remembered how she had screamed at him to search for Five, to _be useful for once, Klaus_. He remembered the last time they talked, when they were still wearing a uniform and Klaus had told her that Ben didn’t blame her nor Luther for his death. She hadn’t reacted kindly to his words, thinking he was making a fool of her.

Luther was… different. Broken in a way Allison hadn’t allowed anyone to see. His eyes were as empty as Klaus had remembered, the longing in them every time he was close to their sister was almost painful. It was hard staying in the same room with the two of them, the way they escaped each other’s gazes was unnatural.

Vanya was as small as the last time he saw her. Her big eyes void of any energy, always down cast and hesitant.

Klaus didn’t talk to her. He never did. They were all tense around her because of the book, and even if Klaus hadn’t been happy to read of how little she thought of him – _attention seeker, selfish, always the victim_ – he was kind of impressed with how she had fucked them.

He was so glad that the box he pawned had been worth good money. With his new bag of pills, he would finally be able to go through the day. 

While looking for something else to pawn he got distracted by Allison’s old wardrobe and he squealed when he found _the_ skirt. How had he wanted to wear it when he was younger, he loved it. But Allison had been extremely jealous of her things so he never managed to.

Now it fit him perfectly and maybe he should be worried that he got so thin as to fit in 17 years old Allison’s clothes but as he pranced around the academy, enjoying the feeling of the long desired skirt on his skin, he found that he really couldn’t care less.

He stopped mid-twirl in the kitchen, suddenly meeting Diego’s gaze. How long had he been standing there?

Diego was staring at him a bit flustered and that did nothing to help the butterflies that flew in his stomach every time the vigilante set eyes on him.

He had long since made peace with the fact that he was in love with his brother. His crush on him went a long way back, when they were eleven and Diego lost a running match to make sure that Klaus hadn’t hurt himself when he fell over a rock.

It was very difficult not to fall in love with him when Diego looked at him with those big dark eyes, all soft on the inside behind the wall of trauma and toxic masculinity.

How many times had Diego casually found him on the streets, picked him up and put him on his feet again?

_You need to get sober, bro_ was the only judgement Diego sent his way, promising he wouldn’t be there next time he hit rock bottom but he was always there, lending him a pat on the head, a plaster on his injuries and a warm hug in their sleep.

So yeah, Klaus was – as Ben had so eloquently put it – whipped.

“Well, hello bro” he smiled, walking towards the table to sit on it, checking out his brother in that _ohmygodsosexy_ leather gear. “I must say, grief looks good on you.”

Diego seemed to shake out of whatever reverie he had fallen in, and landed him with a hard stare “Are you high already?”

“But of course! What. Do you expect me to go through this whole charade sober?”

Diego huffed indignantly and surprisingly didn’t answer him, going to get himself a glass of water. Boring. 

Klaus looked at him, really looked at him and noticed how dark the bags under his eyes were, how his movements were slower and more hesitant than usual. He looked exhausted.

“Are you okay?”

Klaus knew that Diego would be the last person to grieve over their father, having made very clear that he hated the man more than anyone else in this world. So why did he look like that?

“Yeah.” He said shortly “Just had a long night.”

“Uuuuh, someone had fun?”

He didn’t know why thinking of Diego with another person made him feel so weird but Klaus had long stopped questioning his mind when it came to his brother.

“My bond was acting up” Diego admitted.

Wow, he must really be shaken to offer an information on his soulmate. Every time Klaus had asked him about them he had been harshly shut down.

He understood that soulmates weren’t really Diego’s thing. Talking about emotions in general wasn’t his thing.

Klaus was one of the few people who got to see his very soft side with the warm hugs and sweet eyes, but that didn’t mean Diego was willing to share with him anything that came to his mind. 

“Are you okay?” Klaus repeated, with more urgency, getting closer to him.

Diego looked at him, eyes softening.

“I’m fine.” He assured him, putting his hand on his arm and squeezing lightly.

Then, Diego’s gaze became a bit more condescending as he dragged him to sit down on a chair and assessed him harshly.

“When was the last time you ate?”

Klaus groaned. Not another mother hen.

* * *

**January 15, 2002 - The Academy**

_Klaus was moments away from crying his eyes out._

_His Mum was holding the gauze to Diego’s face and within seconds it was soaked with blood._

_It was their third mission out this month, the rhythm had them exhausted. Only this time, they didn’t come out unscathed._

_Diego had been grazed by a bullet, the trajectory intended was enough to make Klaus dizzy and nauseous._

_Five had managed to teleport him in the infirmary without his father knowing and Mum had let him stay by Diego’s side while she nursed him. She kept telling him that Diego was alright, that it was just a nasty cut._

_But it wasn’t just that, was it? Diego was unconscious. He was pale. He wasn’t moving._

_Klaus stayed with him even after their Mum went away, clenching his hand tightly. He silently prayed that Grace wouldn’t tell their Dad he was there._

_Klaus wasn’t sure when he had fallen asleep, but when he woke up it was already dark outside and his brother was awake, looking at him with a fond smile._

_“Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you up” Diego said sheepishly “What are you doing here?”_

_“Mum let me stay.” Klaus mumbled._

_“You’re going to get in trouble”_

_“I don’t care. How are you feeling?”_

_Diego considered the question, his hand moving towards his cheek. Klaus felt like he could be sick if thought about all the blood Diego had lost._

_“I’m fine. Mum said I’m going to have a wicked scar!” he grinned._

_Klaus sniffed and smiled in return, throwing himself at his brother to hug him._

_He got so close to losing him._

_Klaus knew Diego didn’t like hugs, but he would have to suck it up because he needed to feel him close._

_Diego’s arms slowly and hesitantly circled him “I’m fine, Klaus. Really.”_

_“Number Four!”_

_His father’s punishment was worth the whispered reassurances and the hug._

* * *

**March 13, 2019 – The Academy**

The reunion with his family had been a complete disaster, but at least Klaus had found some entertainment in watching Diego try his hardest not to lash out on Allison or Luther, since even he had noticed how tentative they were around each other. It was hard to watch, honestly.

Diego had of course retaliated on Vanya since after writing that book she was as good as dead to the vigilante. It was a good thing that their sister was so quiet that it was basically impossible for Diego to find a reason to shout at her.

Klaus couldn’t say he was too happy with what she had done either, but at least he didn’t throw knives.

He drank the fancy scotch from his dad’s cabinet again and wandered to the kitchen, where he found himself popping another pill.

_My dad’s a stubborn bastard_

He wrote with a pink pen he had found in Allison’s room earlier.

The tingle in his arm was so surprising that it almost sobered him up. Almost.

Maybe he really had to spook his soulmate with almost dying every now and then to get actual results in interacting.

_Can’t be worse than mine was_

Uuuuuh, daddy issues? He had to be master of that. He excitedly filed this information away, treasuring every word that came from his soulmate.

_Pray tell_

Was it too much? Thirty years and his soulmate chose now to talk to him, they certainly wouldn’t open up to him just like that.

_Rather not_

As he was saying. Still, no drug in the world had ever made him this happy. He felt like jumping around, and he tried to but regretted it as soon as the room started spinning.

Right. Too many drugs to jump like a ten-year-old. Gotta remember that.

He lied on the kitchen table instead, writing again. 

_You an only child?_

He tried to pry because fuck it, he couldn’t receive a worse answer than the infamous “I don’t need you”

_I wish._

“Klaus” Ben called him.

He was only slightly annoyed at his brother to have interrupted what was the longest conversation he ever had with his soulmate. But then again, he was too happy that this was actually happening to really be angry at Ben.

“Don’t you think it’s strange that Diego suddenly opens up about his soulmate and you’re receiving answers from yours?”

Klaus groaned slouching dramatically on the table. “Please, Ben, don’t start again. This theory you have is just plain ridiculous”

“I’m just saying, look at the facts: you had an overdose yesterday and Diego’s bond was ‘acting up’”

“This doesn’t mean anything.” He snarled.

“I think it does”

Before Klaus could tell him how absurd he was being, Ben disappeared through the wall leaving him alone with his pen and the other half of his soul.

Ben had this - frankly quite ludicrous - theory that Diego was Klaus’ soulmate. The ghost always had a knack for conspiracies, but this one was just too much and Klaus still hadn’t managed to make him realize how wrong he was.

Suddenly music filled the room and he let himself be transported in the sound, not wanting to think about soulmates and Diego. It hurt too much.

_Do you dance?_

No reply.

* * *

**September 21, 1997 – Griddy’s**

_“I bet I can eat ten more!” Klaus shouted in Five’s face, limbs trembling with energy._

_“We don’t have any more money with us, idiot” Five quipped back “And you sure can’t, anyway”_

_Klaus gasped, was Five challenging him?_

_“I can and I will. Next time I’ll eat double of what I ate today.”_

_Five puffed “You don’t even know how many donuts that would be.”_

_Klaus pulled a funny face at him watching with satisfaction as Five tried to suppress a grin. Good._

_His clever brother had been sad all week after their father had found out that he had managed to contact his soulmate. Hargreeves had been furious with Five, experimenting on him and his bond for a whole week._

_“Did it hurt?” Klaus regretted asking as soon as he spoke._

_This outing at Griddy’s was meant to keep his brother’s mind off of that, what was he doing reminding him of everything yet again?_

_Five’s lips thinned, his hands clenched into fists. “You have no idea.”_

_“Sorry, I didn’t want to make you feel bad” Klaus gripped Five’s fist, feeling guilty like never before._

_Five shook himself from his thoughts, looking at him with sad eyes. “Did you contact yours? I know you’ve tried before, Ben told me.”_

_Klaus felt the familiar pang of hurt in his chest as he shook his head._

_“They never answer.”_

_“They will, Klaus. Don’t worry.”_

_Five patted the hand that was still resting on his brother’s wrist and then caught his gaze again, a mischievous glint burning in them. “Race you to the academy?”_

_“Last one has to do the dishes for a month!” Klaus shouted as he sprinted from his seat “And don’t cheat!”_

* * *

**March 13, 2019 – The Academy**

So. Five was alive. And he was there. With him.

He wasn’t freaking out about it. He was _not_ freaking out about it.

“Stop freaking out and just say something! You haven’t seen him for 17 years” Ben lashed out after the first ten minutes of silence.

So yeah, maybe he was freaking out.

But what the hell.

He still had to decide if the kid bouncing in the kitchen looking for caffeine was a product of the drugs or a ghost.

Klaus was looking at him flabbergasted while clutching his old guitar to his chest, following the kid’s movements as he muttered to himself about stupid brothers not understanding things. Yeah, that sounded a lot like Five to him.

Five finally stopped pacing and returned his staring, scrunching his eyes at him like he was trying to solve a problem.

“I see that Luther and Diego aren’t the only ones who haven’t changed.”

That sounded a lot like an insult. But Klaus was still too chill from the pills to really care so he came up with his falsest smile.

“It would have been a shame, right?”

Klaus put the guitar down and Five’s gaze slipped on his still written arm, the words he had wrote on himself after the shit show that was the funeral still bright pink on his skin.

_Tell me more about you_

As Five’s gaze lingered on it, Klaus couldn’t help but feel more vulnerable than he had in years.

“So you’re still clueless to who that is?” Five asked, a note in his voice that he really couldn’t distinguish.

“Awfully so. I hope that they look at least little bit like Banderas or Keira Knightley, but that’s just stuff for the spunk bank.”

“You’re disgusting.”

“Thank you” Klaus replied solemnly, very proud of himself.

Five put his hands on the table in what looked like a very well mastered power stance, and looked at him once again using the difference in height - given by him being seated - to his full advantage. He leaned forward and… was that concern he saw there?

“You would notice if someone was following, right? You haven’t forgotten all of Dad’s teachings, I hope.”

Klaus spluttered, dropping his guitar to the ground “What? What is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. I guess it still needs to happen. Just… try not to stay alone in next few days.” His brother stated.

O-kay.

Klaus looked over at Ben who shrugged, looking as creeped out as Klaus was feeling.

When he was about to ask for an explanation, Allison entered the kitchen and Five jumped to the cupboards again, returning to his search for coffee.

Klaus’ arm tingled once more.

_No. Stop it._

The medium sighed, itching to just throw back the whole contents of his bag of pills, were it not for Allison and oh, Diego had entered the room too. Good. He needed Diego.

Maybe it was the familiar smell of Diego’s car or the way his brother still seemed tense. Or perhaps, Five’s weird words had shook him more than he’d like to admit, but Klaus didn’t want to be left at the nearest pub to drink the night away anymore.

If he could spend his evening with Diego, cuddling in that awfully small room of his in the gym, then maybe they would both feel better. Diego wouldn’t look as tired and Klaus wouldn’t feel so fucking lonely.

“Soooo we decided on…drum rooooll… waffles!”

As soon as he met Diego’s hard stare he knew his night wouldn’t be warm and soft.

“I’m taking you to the first bus stop and then I’ve gotta work.”

Klaus felt his world crumble a little bit more and bitterly he asked “What? Breaking bones and cracking skulls?”

“Saving lives, baby.”

Klaus let his head fall against the seat. One of these days Diego would join Ben in the ghost world and that day, Klaus was sure, was going to come sooner than later.

“You can still crash at mine if you want” Diego offered, observing him from the mirror.

The thought of staying in that tiny room that Diego called home without him was utterly terrifying to Klaus, his fear of being trapped there overcame his desire for a bed and warmth.

“Nah, hermano” he sighed “have lots of people to see and places to meet and whatever”

He successfully feigned his high for the rest of the ride so that Diego wouldn’t worry, but inside he just wanted to scream and sob his eyes out.

Once he got out of the car, he walked the empty streets, letting tears fall down his face, for once keeping Ben out of his breakdown.

He wandered empty alleys.

He cried.

He got high again, very high.

He found himself in the academy once more, uncomfortably hot.

The arm still presenting the latest words of rejection scratched raw as he let himself fall on the couch, mind blank.


	2. Start Over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diego admits his mistakes while Five recounts his priorities. 
> 
> Will a deal between two soulmates heal years of rejection?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!   
> Here we are with the second chapter!
> 
> Just a heads up, to avoid confusion with the soulmate writings I used:   
>  \- bold italics for Diego  
>  \- italics for "Eric"

**2002 – The Academy**

_When Five ran out of the front door, Diego didn’t think much of it._

_None of them did. Apart from Vanya of course, she was unnecessarily worried from the very start._

_The thing is that Five had always been very exaggerated, he could very well outdo Klaus in dramatics and that was saying something._

_When dinner came and Five still hadn’t returned, a fickle of worry started to bleed through them all._

_He blamed Ben for that. His small brother had even asked Dad about Five, earning himself a stern glare and half dinner. Diego told him he shouldn’t be concerned: Five was clever, he would come back and laugh at them for ever worrying about him._

_The next morning, Five’s empty chair at the table was glaring at all of them. Vanya and Ben’s eyes were stuck there, on his untouched plate._

_Still, Diego couldn’t bring himself to worry about it._

_Surprisingly, Luther was the next one to crack the silence._

_“He should just come back.” He murmured out of the blue in the changing rooms when they were getting ready to start the day._

_Ben’s eyes started to water. Diego hissed at Luther’s incompetence: he was supposed to be the leader. He shouldn’t show worry, he should reassure them instead._

_Two days later, Allison refused to train until Dad would tell them something about Five, her eyes were showing nothing if utter concern and Diego felt a shiver run down his spine._

_Allison and Five hated each other, if she was beginning to worry then maybe..._

_After a week, the reality of Five’s disappearance was beginning to sink in with a too heavy weight, and Diego didn’t know if he could carry it._

_His Dad wouldn’t do anything. Why?_

_“We’re just tools” Five’s nasal voice snapped in his mind from a distant memory, painfully far away and Diego began to panic, realizing just now the gravity of the statement: if a tool is lost then it’s easier to replace it rather than look for the same one._

_Two weeks later there were two men in their house putting up a huge picture of Five in the living room._

_Klaus patted his shoulder from where he was perched on the stairs. “A penny for your thoughts?”_

_“He’d despise it.” Diego said slowly, trying not let a stutter go through or worse, a tremble that would betray just how awful he felt._

_Klaus hummed in thought and sat down next to him, stretching his long legs._

_“You sure? I think he’s too narcissistic not to like it.”_

_Diego pondered at Klaus’ use of a present tense._

_“D-don’t you think he’s d-… you k-k-know?”_

_He didn’t want to say it. He didn’t want to think about it._

_“Nah.” Klaus said, sure of himself. “Dad is making me check. He’s definitely alive.”_

_A big weight lifted from his back and he found himself sighing in relief, shoulders sagging forward. He was very glad that Klaus pretended not to see his vulnerability at the revelation._

_“He’s probably stuck in the future!” his brother suddenly piped up, full of that endless energy of his._

_Diego puffed “Don’t be daft! He’s not.”_

_Klaus leaned towards him, a challenge clear in his green eyes “Are you willing to bet on it?”_

_Diego accepted with a grin, if only because Klaus’ supposition was too impossible._

_“Five dollars he’s just out there. He’s f-found a place to stay and escaped t-this hellhole!”_

_At least that’s what he wished for his snarky brother._

_He shook Klaus’ cold hand enjoying the feeling of sharing a smile with one of his brothers for what felt like the first time since Five disappeared._

_And then, just as suddenly as the happiness had come it flickered away as a daunting possibility took shape in Diego’s mind._

_“We might never know.”_

_He felt Klaus’ sad eyes on him and before his brother could do something like hug him and see his tears, he ran from the living room, from the awful picture and from Klaus’ kind embrace to the solitude of his room._

* * *

**March 13, 2019 – Police Precinct**

In the seventeen years that had followed Five’s disappearance, Diego hadn’t learnt to embrace his feelings at all.

To be fair to him, not many great things had happened the few times he did and he was not a fan of repeating mistakes or letting people make a fool of him.

Trust.

It was all down to that. Diego didn’t trust, he never did.

_Liar,_ his mind supplied.

A lifetime ago he would have trusted his siblings with his life.

His heart stung at the distant memory of the nights spent at Griddy’s, eating donuts like animals and talking about running away and never coming back. How he wished they had the courage back then. He had a feeling things would have been a lot easier for all of them.

He sighed heavily, sinking in the uncomfortable plastic chair he was handcuffed to and resting his head against the cold wall with a loud _thump._

He had never felt so tired.

But it wasn’t just bone deep exhaustion, Diego could handle that easily any day of the week.

It was a lot more than that.

He felt like crying. He felt like his nerves were ready to burst. He felt a desperation etched deep in his very soul.

He felt _lonely_.

Diego didn’t know what to do with that.

A punch? Bruises? Broken bones? He could work with that.

But all these emotions he couldn’t understand, the never-ending pain coming from his bond was so strong and overwhelming he just wanted to fall to the ground and never get up again.

Truth was the past two days had been the hardest in Diego’s life and here, in this cold room of the police precinct, it was all catching up to him.

First, the temporary severing of his bond during his mission. It was the second time now that his soulmate had died and it hurt even more than the first. He didn’t think that was possible but the utter desolation he felt in those long, endless minutes of pure _emptiness_ had been proof enough. If his soulmate were to die a third time, Diego didn’t think he would survive it.

Then, the news of his father’s death and the awful reunion with his family. In all these years he had avoided the Academy like the plague and there was a very simple reason to that. A minute next to Luther was all it took to take down months of anger management and carefully built self-confidence. He would have done a lot more than hit him on the shoulder if it wasn’t for the emptiness he saw in Luther’s eyes. And he knew what kind of hell his brother was living in now.

Finally, fucking Five coming back from the fucking future. With nothing more than a few words and some insults on the side. He still needed to wrap his head around that.

And – the cherry on top of the disgusting cake that was his life - he got arrested. Again. Eudora really needed to sort her anger at him another way, getting tased was never fun.

He had spent the whole night handcuffed in the precinct, waiting for the police to sort their useless papers out and waiting to talk with Eudora. She was taking her sweet time.

The worst thing?

Sitting there with nothing to do, too exhausted and uncomfortable to sleep, made it impossible to avoid feeling the faint thrum of his battered bond. It was so weak he had been very close to being sick more than once because of it.

He couldn’t take it anymore.

“Hey Rodriguez, have a pen?” he asked his old friend as he passed by and the good man threw him a black marker.

With difficulty he raised his sleeve and manoeuvred his arm so that he could write on it.

Just a year ago the very thought of deliberately initiating contact with Eric would have horrified him, but last night had been something else and a terrifying doubt had been crippling him since the temporary tear in the bond.

Was he the cause of his deaths?

Eric had been nothing if relentless in his attempts at communicating with him, no matter how harshly he’d put him down or ignored him. His soulmate’s need to strengthen their bond was always present, always there but Diego had rejected him constantly.

He hurt him.

In his selfish world he had never thought about how Eric could have reacted to this.

In the end, Diego had _chosen_ to ignore the bond without even giving Eric a chance, while his soulmate had never had this choice.

Eric was robbed of something that was supposed to be wonderful, all because Diego was too much of a pussy to get over his Dad’s teachings. To get over years and years of resentment and fear. To get over Ben’s death. To trust Eric just because he could.

Shaking himself out of those dark thoughts he acted on instinct, writing the first thing that came to mind before he could chicken out.

**_How many more times do you think you’ll die?_ **

Okay, again, Diego had never said to be the most delicate person but he _was_ genuinely worried for Eric. This was the only way he knew how to show concern, so screw him.

_Why did I inconvenience you?_

The pink colour he used yesterday was on his arm again and Diego had to fight himself really hard not to find it reassuring.

**_Not funny._ **

He answered, without missing a beat.

_Well, then I shall adopt your strategy and avoid the question by not answering you at all._

He felt called out. Guilty.

A small voice in his head that resembled too much his father kept repeating how much he had failed him, how he had disappointed him, let him down.

**_I’m a very good dancer._ **

Screw you, dad. Diego may have been an asshole to Eric but he was going to rectify that. He was willing to try, at least.

He felt a pang of panic run through him at what he was about to do. He had never nurtured the bond before, never even tried to. An ice grip of terror was cursing through his veins at the very thought.

But at the same time, a soft thrill. A sweet excitement.

The last time he felt like this was when Eric had first written to him all those years ago.

Diego had been so afraid of his Dad finding out. At the time he was so hopeful, he was sure that Eric was going to be his future.

_What?_

Eric wrote after a long pause and Diego explained with a trembling hand.

**_The answer to your question, yesterday._ **

His soulmate was taking longer to answer so Diego wrote once again, offering some more information, all the while feeling a strange quiver through his usually dulled bond.

**_I took a lot of classes when I was younger. What about you?_ **

He exhaled and closed his eyes. There it was. A beating, a rhythm – slow but sure, louder than it ever was. Was it really that easy to take care of the bond? A few words and a little attention?

His arm tickled and Diego opened his eyes, meeting a shaky handwriting.

_I’m good, people just don’t understand my kind of moves._

Diego felt a traitorous smile invade his face.

**_Right, you’re too good for all the people who saw you dance?_ **

There was a happiness, an excitement that wasn’t his but was becoming his to hold, to admire, to treasure. His breath itched with the foreign feeling.

He wanted nothing more in the world but to feel it again. That pure joy that came from another person. Caused by no one else but him.

_I’m sensing sassiness there and I’ll have you known that I’m the best dancer ever._

**_Sure, man._ **

The moment was cut short by Rodriguez who appeared in front of him and got him on his feet before he could end the conversation properly.

Diego breathed softly once again, using the time he had left to linger on the bond, trying to convey the tentative pleasure he had felt from the conversation. It was easier than he would have ever imagined.

His renewed energy and easy grin were unwelcomed by Eudora and her glare. Talking with her was going to be an awful return to the real world.

“How long is this game of yours going to last?” she snapped immediately.

“It’s no game, Eudora. I’m getting the results you’d never see, stuck here in your office.”

The years old argument was never going to see an end.

“You need to start a real life, Diego.” She accused him, gaze condescending. “This fantasy of being a hero needs to stop.”

“I _am_ living a real life, Patch.” He said offended.

“No, you’re not. We’re not twenty anymore, Diego. You need to grow up.”

The vigilante scoffed, looking away from her.

“Next time I catch you in one of my crime scenes, you’re going to do jail time. Alright?”

As if.

Patch has been threatening him with jail for years, the most she’s ever done to him was the taser. Which was not fun.

He opened the exit doors of the precinct and smelled the fresh air. He needed to sleep.

He walked in a haze to the wreckage that was Griddy’s, the police tapes and several officers still swarming the place, and reached his car sinking in the old front seat. Maybe he should have walked directly to the gym.

As he put his arms on the wheel, the sleeve of his shirt rode up slightly, showing a new writing on his forearm. He adjusted the material up his arm to see it clearly.

_Thank you_

It was small, like his soulmate wasn’t sure if he should have written it down but it warmed Diego to the bone.

* * *

**1955 – The Commission’s Headquarters**

_“You did a great job in Vietnam.”_

_Five tensed and immediately closed his book as the familiar drawl of a feminine voice reached his ears._

_The rhythmic tapping of heels on the ground followed the words and Five made sure to slip the book inside the pockets of his heavy coat._

_“It was an easy mission.”_

_He turned around with the usual fake grin as he surveyed the Handler’s weird outfit without showing any kind of emotion._

_She stopped a bit too close to him, too much in his space but Five stood his ground, using his height to look her down._

_Her smile was the exact same as every other day, red, toothy and lethal. The long cigarette holder gripped tight between her teeth._

_“It was not.” She spoke again “But I guess you are made of harder stuff.”_

_Her hand went to touch his grey moustache and he pretended the touch didn’t bother him at all._

_He didn’t answer, too busy hoping that the nervousness he was feeling – the deep fear for that mistake, that misjudgement, but what else could he have done? – wouldn’t be caught by her observing eyes._

_She stared at him for a while longer, waiting to see him squirm under her icy glare but it didn’t happen. It never did._

_She hummed, looking very pleased._

_Five’s nerves were almost bursting when she put her hand on the pocket of her red coat and immediately he had to suppress the urge to fish for his gun._

_She took out a tube with his name on it._

_“The briefcase is ready downstairs for you.”_

_He nodded his thanks taking the offered tube. Her hand caught his wrist in bruising grip as soon as his fingers touched the metal of the steel case._

_“Remember, Five. You can’t escape me.”_

_Five remained frozen even as she walked away, the tapping of her heels breaking the silence of the grey room._

_She **knew**._

* * *

**March 13, 2019 – The Lab**

Five had made very few mistakes in his life.

Going forward in time had been one.

Using the wrong equation to come back to his family had been another.

He wasn’t going to make any more. Those two were enough to last for a lifetime.

Quite literally.

Now he had more pressing matters and he couldn’t let the niggling sensation that had taken hold of him since the previous night grow into a full blown panic.

He needed to focus.

Prioritize.

Problem 1: the Apocalypse. The eye.

Going alone to the lab hadn’t worked thanks to his appearance and he doubted that threatening the doctor’s life would have gotten him anywhere, though he was definitely willing to go that far if the situation required it.

Right now he needed to hope that taking his idiot brother with him might bring him somewhere.

Problem 2: the Commission.

He had killed the weakest soldiers, now they were definitely going to bring in the hard guns.

He had to be prepared. After the lab thing was done, he was going to distance himself from his family so that they wouldn’t get caught in the crossfire.

He was the best the Commission had to offer, so it wasn’t wrong to guess that they were going to attack him with all their might and for all the training that the Umbrella Academy had to endure, not all of his siblings would be able to withstand the Commission’s force.

Vanya would be the most vulnerable. He couldn’t let anything happen to her.

That brought him to the third _big_ problem. One that he knew he shouldn’t be thinking about right now, it can be worked out later, he will find a solution after the Apocalypse.

However, he was worried. He was scared.

Seldom he had let himself think about his life after the Apocalypse but Vanya had always been the answer to that question.

He had figured out she was his soulmate after getting the tattoos.

Poor innocent Vanya had drawn the Umbrella Academy symbol on her own wrist and it appeared on Five’s. He could still remember the wonder he had felt when the drawing had appeared and he had _understood_.

He had wrote to his soulmate in secret before that, but they never exchanged names, they had never told each other anything significant about their identity. And Vanya had unknowingly given him all the answers he needed with a simple drawing.

He hadn’t told her anything, too afraid of his father’s eyes everywhere in the house. An his bond was already so weak, for some reason that Five still had to figure out and had been eating at him for a long, long time. Hargreeves’ experiments had managed to damage it even more, making it even duller than it already was.

When he had seen Vanya’s hesitant gaze after he managed to come back he was ready to break down and cry.

But he didn’t. Because her gaze wasn’t accompanied by the slow thrum of the bond.

His soul was still silent, half empty.

Could the time travel have severed the bond completely? What that was happening to them? Had he really made such a dire mistake? Condemned them both to a life in half?

He couldn’t stand the emptiness in his soul anymore, the familiarity of it was sickening and it was what had made being an assassin so easy in the first place.

The weight of the eye in his hand was grounding, as it had been in the Apocalypse.

He had to save them first, then he could fix all the problems he had created.

But then, an unforeseen event. A complication. Six words that managed to crumble all his hopes.

“The eye hasn’t been manufactured yet”

The doctor’s voice kept ringing in his head and the only reason he wasn’t succumbing to his homicidal instinct – he really needed to get a grip on his anger management problems – was that the person closest to him was his brother.

His idiot brother.

“Come on, old man, you should relax!”

Five let himself fall against the steps, trying to reign in the desperation he was feeling.

“You’re way too strung up.” Klaus sat beside him, laughing with a carefreeness Five longed for.

“Are you capable of shutting up for a few seconds?”

“Don’t disrespect me”

The impersonation of their father was honestly quite awful and Five really had to figure out a solution, he needed tranquillity to work.

Then again, he was a bit hesitant in leaving Klaus alone. He didn’t know when he would time travel but it had to happen in the next few days and Five _must_ prevent it.

“Hey, I figured out why you’re like this. Forty years on your own… you must be horny as hell!”

Five sighed.

He forgot how much of nuisance Klaus could be.

“Wait… what happened to your bond when you time travelled?” his brother had taken a very serious expression.

Someone who didn’t know him could have mistaken the concern in his eyes for simple confusion, but Five knew better, and it enraged him. The weight he was carrying was too much and Klaus was an easy outlet for all his frustrations.

“You’d think that you’d be more worried about yours seeing as you don’t even know who they are.” He spat and immediately regret it as he saw Klaus close off completely.

His brother turned his lips up in a bitter smile, shifting his gaze on the ground, his hands scratching his arms nervously.

“Not my fault I ended up with an asshole.”

Five could see that this was a hard subject for Klaus despite his pretence of carefreeness.

He added another problem to solve on his mental list: his two idiot brothers’ bond.

He had endured their stupidness for years when he was in the Academy, he wasn’t going to let them waste anymore time as soon as they were all out of danger.

“Is your bond still there?” he asked matter-of-factly.

Klaus took a while to answer this time.

“Very weak.” He finally uttered.

So he was in time. Good.

They were idiots, but they were his idiots and he didn’t want them to suffer the way he was for a severed bond.

“Go to Diego. And try not to stay on your own for too long.” He fretted, standing up.

“What are you on about, Five?”

He disappeared into the taxi, not looking back.

He had a world to save.

* * *

**1999 – Griddy’s**

_“You’ve been awfully quiet all day.” Klaus’ chirp voice reached him. “You still feeling sick?”_

_Diego slowed his walk to fall into step with his brother’s energic skipping. The luminous sign of the diner greeted the six children with a sweet promise of sugar and a few moments of peace after the trying day._

_“Nah.”_

_He answered truthfully though the stinging sensation on his wrist where his new tattoo resided was still bothering him a lot._

_He tried not to think about it, letting Klaus’ easy chatter wash over him, his other siblings’ laughter ahead of them._

_He was happy now._

_Klaus stared at him deep in thought._

_“You know we can always bring the donuts back home with us, right? If Luther makes fun of you, I will personally challenge him to a donut war and win for you!”_

_Diego frowned at being treated like a damsel in distress - he could fight his own battles after all - but as he looked in Klaus’ earnest eyes the irritation bled away and he found himself grinning._

_“L-l-luther would have no chance at w-winning”_

_“Exactly!”_

_Too busy sniggering to himself, Diego didn’t see Klaus reaching for his hand until it was gripped tight in his own cold one, a faint blush covering his pale cheeks._

_“What’s bothering you, Dee?”_

_Diego sighed, squeezing his brother’s hand._

_“The tattoo. It’ll b-b-be the f-first s-s-sign my soulmate has f-f-from me.” He whispered, fighting against his stutter. “D-d-dad t-t-took the f-first c-c-contact away f-from me.”_

_Klaus’ gaze crumbled, his lips turning down almost comically._

_“I’m sorry. It shouldn’t be like that.” He said, stopping in front of the entrance while their siblings went through the doors of the diner._

_“I-I s-s-should have w-written to my s-soulmate b-b-before getting the t-t-tattoo.”_

_Diego was so angry with himself about this, the thought had been nagging at him all day._

_Klaus squeezed his hand, looking at him with big eyes. “You’re protecting them, Dee. You’re keeping them safe from Dad.”_

_Klaus’ words reassured Diego, soothing his worries, and he sagged forward in his brother’s embrace, the stress of the day finally being washed away by Klaus’ bony frame against him._

* * *

**March 13, 2019 – The Boiler Room**

When Diego arrived at the gym he was ready to throw himself on the bed and stay there for the next two days.

The only thing keeping him going, apart from the coffee that Rodriguez had given him early that morning, was his bond.

He was mesmerized by the very feeling of it, the thrum of energy, a reassuring presence that came from deep within his soul.

He was whole. A missing part of him he didn’t even know he needed was finally safe within him, like the last piece of a puzzle that gave meaning to the whole picture.

The bond was still weak, years of rejection and resentment couldn’t be cancelled by some words, but every single time Diego looked for the bond within him he would put strength to it, would care for it, or simply acknowledge it, mending decades-old injuries and slowly healing it.

He was planning on writing to his soulmate a bit more before crashing to bed, eager to feel the same echoed happiness that he had experienced this morning.

His plans went out of the window the moment he stepped into his home to find Luther – to his great irritation – and Klaus – to his surprise – in what looked like an argument.

“… before throwing accusations around.”

Klaus was saying in a haughty tone from where he was sprawled on Diego’s bed.

“I had all the reasons to believe that he kil…” Luther was interrupted mid-sentence by Klaus’ squeal of welcome to Diego.

The vigilante went down the stairs, staring with a raised eyebrow at the two of them.

“Did I miss the invitation to this party?”

Luther opened his mouth to talk but was again interrupted by Klaus who spoke up while looking at his nails.

“Our dear captain over there finally figured out that you didn’t kill Dad.”

Diego grunted noticing the poster of his fight clenched in Luther’s hand.

“I came here to apologize.” Luther said, but the irritation lacing his voice told him how much it cost him to admit his mistake. “Though I don’t understand why you never told me you were fighting the night Dad died.”

Klaus giggled loudly and Diego had to put all of his energy in trying not to roll his eyes.

“I shouldn’t have to prove my innocence to you.” He drawled out.

God, he was tired.

“No, you’re right.” Luther admitted, diverting his gaze on the floor. “I just thought…”

“Why didn’t you suspect me?” Klaus almost whined, sitting up suddenly.

Diego almost laughed at the shocked expression on Luther’s face, but it turned furious in a matter of seconds.

“You’re taking Dad’s death too lightly.”

Luther took a menacing step towards Klaus and Diego immediately put himself between Luther and his brother, hand on his knife.

Exhaustion be damned, Luther had no business threatening Klaus, if he took a step more Diego would have no qualms in starting a fight.

“Now. You have a good day, brother.” The vigilante said, nodding towards the door.

To his satisfaction, Luther relented, not before throwing one last glare at Klaus.

Finally, Diego let himself fall seated on the bed right next to Klaus, resting his head on his hand.

“And what are you doing here?”

“Moi?” Klaus pointed to himself with a surprised expression. “Can’t I come and visit my brother without a reason?”

Diego hummed, slumping on the bed and squishing Klaus. He grinned with his eyes closed at his brother’s screeching.

“You’re too heavy” Klaus wheezed dramatically, swatting his hands against him.

Diego rolled away with a chuckle, setting himself between the wall and Klaus’ thin frame, opening one eye at the medium, who was looking at him weirdly.

“What?”

“You look like shit.” Klaus stated.

“Thanks” Diego huffed out, trying his best to sound offended.

Klaus smiled cheekily and Diego’s heart skipped a bit.

No matter how ruffed up and scruffy Klaus was, he never failed to be beautiful to Diego. His green eyes, the easy smile, the pale soft skin and long sinewy legs. The vigilante could stare at him for hours without ever getting tired.

His brother snuggled close, resting his head on his chest and throwing his arm over Diego’s stomach, effectively keeping him where he wanted. Diego smiled against Klaus’ curls, his own hand coming automatically to card through them, scratching his head and eliciting soft contented sighs from the medium.

He poised his lips to the top of Klaus’ head, resting them there and trying with all his might not to inhale like a creep to take in his comforting scent.

His eyes were closing against his will when Klaus spoke again.

“Can I stay with you tonight?”

“’Course you can.” He whispered back “You know you don’t have to ask.”

Klaus hummed and the sound reverberated across Diego, making him tingle in places he shouldn’t be thinking of right now.

“Just don’t use while you’re here.” He added as an afterthought, tracing patterns with lazy fingers on Klaus’ back.

Surprisingly, the medium didn’t protest nor fight him on that as he usually would.

“Wasn’t g’ng to.” He mumbled, sleep catching up to him as his breaths evened out.

Diego stared awake at the ceiling for a few more minutes, the weird reply having sobered him up slightly from his sleep-hazed mind.

But he didn’t last long, exhaustion taking over him.

**_Whatcha doing?_ **

He was alone as he wrote on his arm, Klaus having wandered off before he woke up, probably to go seek his next high.

Diego had half a mind to go look for him later in the night, he had sounded strange before. Not necessarily off, but the vigilante was sure that there was something going on with him.

But now, he decided it was time to relax and take all the comfort he could from the bond while experience the foreign sensation of giving it in return, for once initiating contact with a non-threatening question.

_Hello_

The writing was accompanied by a lot of small drawings of stars and hearts, followed immediately by another message.

_Bathing, relaxing, living the life. You?_

As soon as he read it his bond gave out a soothing weak sensation of pure peace. Diego couldn’t help but smile, inebriated with the feeling of perceiving someone else’s emotions.

**_Guess I’m doing the same but in bed_ **

He didn’t know where the conversation was heading, but he didn’t care. That wasn’t the point. The aim of this was to mend, to heal, to open himself up to this possibility of happiness.

_Is this some way to start some kind of sexting?_

_Just winding you up, don’t go away please._

The two sentences, written in quick sequence as not to leave him a space to answer reminded him just how chaotic Eric was.

Had he not already experienced a personality as hectic as Klaus’, he would have been aback.

**_You’re an idiot._ **

_I thought we had established that already_

He huffed a laugh setting the pen aside.

He stood up to get ready for a night out scouting for Klaus. He put on his harness and his boots, frowning as a small thought made its way across his mind.

He grabbed a pen and wrote again.

**_Shouldn’t you focus more on the person you’re in love with?_ **

The answer was immediate as always.

_Ah, don’t worry there. Nothing happening on that front._

**_They refused you?_ **

_He’s blessedly unaware of my attention and way too invested in his own “job” anyway_

Diego hesitated, twirling the pen on his hand like it was one of his knives.

**_Poor fuck is missing out_ **

_Is he now?_

**_Only an asshole wouldn’t want to have anything to do with you._ **

Why couldn’t he just say that he was sorry for being such an asshole?

Diego groaned, throwing his pen against the wall in his frustration. He couldn’t even apologize properly, he was such an idiot.

His arm tingled again.

_There’s no need for you to do this_

Diego scrambled like a madman to get his pen back and answer him as quickly as possible.

**_I think there is. How can I make it up to you?_ **

_Just. Write to me. Sometime. Not always._

Diego sighed again. He shouldn’t be surprised at the request, it was all Eric had ever wanted in the first place.

**_Start over._ **

_Yes._

**_I can do that, but it’s difficult for me._ **

He didn’t want Eric to be disappointed or to expect too much from him. It was all so overwhelming for Diego, he didn’t know if he could cope with too many expectations.

_How about, we get to ask a question a day to get to know each other a bit more?_

**_Sounds fair._ **

He could do that. The comfort of the bond was too much of a blessing to give away in any case. He had grown up now, he knew better than distrust everything that came with it.

With a smile he hurried outside, ready to start his night patrol.

His search for his brother eventually got interrupted when he stumbled upon a destroyed shop where there had been a shootout.

He missed Five by minutes.

Five climbed the stairs of the Academy, a dull ache deep in his bones.

His ears were still ringing.

A desperation was crawling on his skin, overwhelming in a way he hadn’t felt since the worst days of the Apocalypse.

He wasn’t sure he could make it. He wasn’t sure he could save them.

When he bumped into Luther and Allison, he was too far away to really hear what they were saying, catching Luther’s hands by instinct alone.

He was holding the very same wrist that gave him the eye.

They would all be dead, again.

He had failed them all, _again_.

He looked at his siblings and he saw bodies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know your thoughts :3  
> Next up will be Klaus' POV


	3. What's Your Name?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus can finally take comfort in his bond, but how long will it last?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we are again with a new chapter, thank you for all your wonderful comments! <3
> 
> Just a heads up, I changed the Fiveya tag because as I was editing one of the later chapters I realized that it's a bit more present than I originally thought it would be, so sorry for that! 
> 
> Again, bold italics for Diego and italics for Klaus.

**2014 – The Boiler Room**

_Klaus had never been prone to rage. As a matter of fact, the medium was many things, but never angry._

_Envious? Sure._

_Coward? Of course._

_Manipulative? When he needed to be._

_Even cruel, at times._

_But anger never really stuck in him long enough for Klaus to actually fall prey to it._

_He loved thinking of himself as a lover more than a fighter. He had seen enough violence in his childhood. He kept seeing anger (and regret and resentment and hatredandfurysomuchfury) everyday reflected in the ghosts’ dead eyes. ~~Even Ben’s.~~ _

_There was so much of it always surrounding him that he didn’t see the point in getting angry._

_So when Vanya’s book came out he had only sniggered to himself, merely surprised at their sister’s revenge._

_Good for her, stick it to the old man! He had thought._

_But she didn’t “stick it to the old man”, well she did but she didn’t stop there._

_Reading Vanya’s book made him quite sick. But it could have been the withdrawal kicking in, who knows?_

_What Klaus definitely knew was that they both sucked. The withdrawal and the book. Reading the book when in withdrawal._

_He had to admit it was an engrossing read. He couldn’t take his eyes off the pages. The only time he had hesitated was when he had read the chapter dedicated to the Séance._

_Klaus shuddered at the name. How he hated it._

_He couldn’t hide his surprise at Vanya’s envy of his “gift” and her anger at how he was apparently “wasting” it. Did she really want to see the dead so badly? Did she actually want to be a part of their father’s endless torture and abuse?_

_But it wasn’t his chapter that made him sick. After all, he was quite used to being undermined and insulted. He could probably get off on a good insult and a slap._

_Clearly, Ben had been a lot more scandalized for him than Klaus himself was._

_There were two chapters that he couldn’t accept. Twice had his fingers trembled as the foreign feeling of rage fleetingly run through him._

_Ben’s death._

_His death shouldn’t be for the whole world to see. The pain they had all felt. The accusation that had fallen upon them at the funeral. How the blame they had all felt had torn their family apart._

_Vanya shouldn’t have exposed them like this._

_The anger at his sister reached its peak after watching Ben’s subdued reaction to reading that passage._

_It receded and disappeared completely when he read of how she used to sit by Ben’s statue and cover it with flowers. Red begonias. Ben’s favourite._

_But then he read of Diego and what she thought was his “inferiority complex”._

_Vanya was positive that everything Diego did was to prove to their father that he was a better Number One._

_She called him childish, naïve and broken._

_She hypothesized that Diego connected with him and Ben because they were the weakest links of the group – and ouch, they kind of were but ouch nonetheless – and providing for them would have shown their Dad that he was a more fitting leader than Luther._

_She accused Diego of pretending to tolerate Klaus and his bullshit in order to get in their Dad’s favour. Vanya’s words were different – kinder, sugar-coated – but the meaning was the same._

_Klaus and Ben had been furious after reading that._

_Ben was keeping his hands tight on his stomach to prevent the Eldritch from getting out when Klaus stopped and doubted._

_What if it was true?_

_What if Diego couldn’t stand him? What if it was all a lie?_

_Ben told him he was being irrational, Diego loved him, Diego loved them both. But all Klaus could hear was the rejection, yet another person didn’t want him near because he wasn’t enough, he would never be enough failurefailurefailurefailure…_

_Logically, Klaus knew that wasn’t the case._

_Vanya didn’t know anything about Diego and how much his brother was good to him._

_If what she said was right, then Diego wouldn’t have looked for him in the streets to make sure he was safe. He wouldn’t have punched a dealer who got too handsy with him. He wouldn’t constantly threaten to stab – and actually stab – all the people who hurt him._

_Vanya didn’t know, couldn’t know how Diego had confided in him back in the Academy, how Diego had trusted him, how he let Klaus hold him tight while he cried for being kicked out of the police academy._

_Still, Klaus couldn’t shake the doubt out of his mind. What if… what if it was true? What if Diego thought the same things Vanya thought? That he was weak, needy for attention, clingy, **weak** …_

_He found Diego as soon as he got out of rehab a week later, scared to find the truth in Vanya’s words._

_When he got to the boiler room Vanya’s cover picture was still stuck to the punching bag and Klaus couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh, trying with all his might to hide his fears._

_Of course, Diego would try to punch his problems away._

_Diego was sitting on his bed polishing the blades of his knives (and if Klaus was a little turned on by the sight, well nobody needed to know, right?)._

_When the vigilante looked up at him, he frowned immediately. Klaus felt his lower lip wobble and damn, he really should have gone to get high before coming here._

_Diego came close to him, gripping his shoulders tightly and trying to meet his gaze._

_“What’s wrong?”_

_When Klaus’ eyes welled, Diego hissed as if the sight of his brother’s tears was physically hurting him and hugged him close asking if he was injured, what could he do to help, who did he had to punch this time._

_That was proof enough for Klaus._

_He felt safe. He felt at home._

_And nobody, no cruel words could ever take that feeling away from him._

* * *

**March 13-14, 2019 – The Boiler Room**

“Talk to me, Klaus” Ben’s soft voice did nothing to soothe his poor confused mind.

Klaus giggled hysterically, as if to prove to himself that he was definitely going mad.

In what universe could this actually, really, truly be happening?

It was too good to be true.

In Klaus’ long and painful experience if something this good happened to him then it will soon be balanced by something really, really bad because nice things just weren’t for him.

Though to be fair, his experience didn’t really matter in this case as nothing this meaningful had ever happened to him: this was probably the best moment in Klaus’ sad life.

“My soulmate apologized.” the medium finally intoned, letting himself fall over the sidewalk, not too far from Diego’s shitty gym.

The words sounded strange to his ears. Never in his life would Klaus have imagined holding an actual, more-than-a-few-lines long conversation, let alone being asked for forgiveness.

“They did.” Ben smiled at him, his eyes twinkling almost as much as they did when he was alive.

Klaus gulped.

“Am I high?” he sniffed, feeling his eyes water again for the millionth time that night “Is this some cruel drug-induced hallucination?”

“I can’t say you’re sober, but this is definitely happening.”

A roar of thunder interrupted the silence of the empty streets and rain started falling down relentlessly. As his clothes soaked and his hair plastered on his forehead, Klaus was finally convinced that this couldn’t be a dream.

This was reality.

He inhaled shakily, feeling the cold seep into his bones but he was warm. Oh, so warm. He felt like whimpering every time he reached to his bond, sensing the care that came from the other side.

It was still weak. The thrum of lovewarmthattention _iamhereforyou_ still so foreign and far that he couldn’t really feel his soulmate’s emotions unless they willingly let them flow through the bond.

But he could feel that rejection had gone away, his soulmate – wherever they were – wasn’t avoiding their connection anymore, they were _feeding_ it.

“Come on, Klaus. You should find somewhere dry.” Ben told him, making a show of standing up.

Klaus let himself be guided by his words, hoisting himself up with shaky legs and looking around him to the empty streets. He could already see the first ghosts make an appearance, lost souls roaming the streets wailing and crying over the sound of the rain.

He felt the familiar itch under his skin, seeking the next high, needing it.

For a moment he felt extremely glad that his bond was still weak enough that he could actively filter the emotions that reached his soulmate. He didn’t want them to know how much of a fuck-up he was.

“Where do you want to go?” Ben looked at the wandering spirits with sad eyes, expecting Klaus’ search for the nearest dealer.

And Klaus was so close to disappearing in an alley and give himself away for the next high, but he felt a sweet – _sweet_ – quiver of care coming from his bond and no. No.

He wasn’t ready to numb that feeling with drugs yet.

If his soulmate was trying then he would try as well.

“Diego’s.” Klaus decided and at Ben’s surprised look he made up a simple excuse “I told him I’d spend the night at his. Don’t want to worry that mother hen.”

His brother smiled tentatively at him, having guessed the real motive behind his actions immediately.

When he entered the room he suppressed a groan, noticing that Diego was already gone.

He really didn’t like staying in this too-small place on his own. But exhaustion was still littering his bones, a feeling that he absentmindedly guessed wasn’t properly his, it was probably coming from his soulmate.

So he stripped from his drenched clothes, leaving only his briefs on, and promptly fell on the bed not even bothering to cover himself with the blankets even though the cold was slowly turning him into a shivering mess.

But he needed it. He had to ground himself somehow because if this really was just a cruel dream then he didn’t want it to end. He didn’t want to wake up to a world where he was still rejected, where he was still alone.

Hours passed and he was still awake in the same position as before, the ticking clock being the only sound in the room.

A slow but gripping nervousness was starting to take hold of him as his mind worked a mile an hour, trying to make sense of whatever was happening to him. He wanted a hit. He wanted to be numb.

But then again, he couldn’t help but already feel addicted to his bond. How long was it going to last?

All night he had been itching to write again on his arm, but didn’t want to try his luck, the irrational – but was it really so irrational? - fear of being rejected once again out of the blue was too strong to be left aside.

He scratched his arms raw every time the need of going out and get wasted became too much to handle. If he just fell asleep then he would be able to power through the first hours of sobriety much more easily.

He buried his face in the pillow, surrounding himself with the familiar scent of Diego’s conditioner, favouring the comforting feeling of safety that came with it to the growing awareness of how much of a creep he was.

It was three in the morning when Diego’s door creaked open.

“There you are” the vigilante whispered softly, descending the stairs.

Oh.

Had Diego been looking for him? A sudden wave of love and gratefulness washed out of Klaus as he made sure to keep his eyes shut and pretend to be asleep.

If they interacted, Diego would immediately notice his fidgeting and Klaus wanted to keep his intention of staying sober secret from him until he was done with the worst of the withdrawal.

A few more sounds were heard as Diego got rid of his harness, then the bed dipped and a warm hand lifted the bangs from his face. Klaus felt his chest warm at Diego’s soft curse when he deemed Klaus too cold and proceeded to cover him with his blankets, taking out another fluffy one from his wardrobe and draping it over him with care.

Klaus almost gave himself away when Diego lied next to him, resting his strong arm around his stomach, drawing him close so that Diego’s chest was plastered to Klaus’ back. The vigilante’s nose came to rest on the back of his neck in an intimate embrace and for the first time that night Klaus really felt at peace, ready to just drown in the darkness and sleep, but he didn’t.

He listened to Diego fall asleep, his soft breaths breaking goosebumps on his neck, and the medium abandoned himself to the knowledge that his soulmate would never be able to make him feel like Diego could.

Was this considered cheating? No, of course not.

And yet, Klaus had always dreamed a life in love with his soulmate, and he was rewarded with a pathetic crush for his brooding brother. What was wrong with him?

Diego woke up not three hours later and Klaus was still pretending to be asleep. He was showered with another wave of affection towards his brother when Diego moved silently in his flat trying all he could not wake him.

He left the boiler room minutes later and Klaus finally sat up on the bed.

“You are two pining idiots. Just so you know.” Ben said from behind his book.

“Shut up, Ben.” groaned Klaus automatically, a smile playing on his lips.

Ben used to say that every time Diego or Klaus did something that bordered too much on the limit of platonic, shaking his head disapprovingly. Death hadn’t change it.

Ben closed his book with a dramatic _slap_ and got down from the table where he was perched on.

“Diego was weirdly happy.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that instead of brooding he was – wait for it – smiling.”

That had Klaus’ full attention.

“Diego? Smiling?”

“Yeah!”

Now that really was unusual.

His breath itched as he felt the unfamiliar sensation of a tingle on his arm.

**_Morning_ **

His smile split open, feeling extremely giddy and scared of this newfound happiness. Ben hovered close, a soft light in his eyes.

_Hey you_

He drew some stars as well, trying to show how happy he was though he could feel from the bond that his soulmate knew. Was it normal to feel this vulnerable?

**_Got your question ready for me?_ **

_You’ll just have to wait some more, don’t want to waste it immediately_

**_Fair enough… can I ask mine?_ **

_Shoot_

**_Where are you from?_ **

Klaus drew starts and stripes to shake things up and asked _Why?_

**_You usually write during my night-time, I figured you were British or something_ **

Klaus huffed and wondered to himself again why the hell he was waiting to ask his question. Just as he was about to throw away his resolution and ask them, his soulmate wrote to him again.

**_Alright, I need to work – Later_ **

“Should have just asked them” Ben sing-sang from behind his shoulders echoing his own thoughts, but his joking demeanour vanished as soon as he saw Klaus’ scared eyes. “You can do it later, they’ll answer. Don’t worry.”

Klaus didn’t want to be so sure of it, too afraid of being refused once again, but he decided to focus on the positive side, having implicitly gained a new information on his soulmate.

They were American too.

* * *

When Luther approached him he was still rummaging in the garbage can to look for that damn notebook and questioning his life choices. Ben was brooding on the fire escape, pouting at him like a child. 

“There you are. At least I found you.” The giant said with a dejected face.

“Well, nice morning to you too, mon Capitaine. What brings you to this fine corner of the world?”

Luther looked at him with that barely contained frustration that he always reserved for him. Klaus smirked, knowing what came next… 4, 3, 2, 1…

Luther made a weird noise, between a loud sigh and a suppressed groan, clenching his fists.

There it was. Luther never changed.

“Have you seen Diego? Or Five? We need to talk. It’s important.”

Klaus got out of the garbage with what he thought was a really graceful move, but would have been even more divine had he done it with a dress which he really wanted right now.

As his feet touched the pavement, he muffled a groan at his aching muscles, a cramp climbing up his leg left him breathless for a second.

“I may know where our little Five is. No idea about our friendly Batman, though.”

As he approached he could tell the exact moment Luther understood there was something wrong with him just as he could deduce from his big brother’s disappointed stare when he decided that the flush on Klaus’ cheeks, his heavy breathing and glassy eyes were a product of drugs.

No use in telling him it was the exact opposite, Luther wouldn’t believe him for a second.

“Just tell me where they are. We need to talk about Mum.”

“Mum?” Ben voiced Klaus’ surprise but of course, he went unheard, so the medium echoed him.

“I’ll tell you when we find all the others.”

Klaus shrugged, sniffing loudly and leading Luther to the lab Five was stalking, pretending not to be hurt when Luther purposely walked a few feet behind him.

“You don’t look too good, Klaus” Ben intoned with a big frown.

How cute.

“Wonder why” he mumbled, ignoring Luther’s weird look.

“You don’t have to go through withdrawal alone, you could ask for his help.”

Klaus downright giggled at that. Imagining Luther being all worried and concerned for him was so absurd it cracked him up.

“You should give him more credit” Ben pouted again.

Klaus had the sudden urge of poking his nose. He really was the cutest ghost.

As they walked, Klaus got more and more restless, the silence weighting on him like a ton of bricks. Sure, he didn’t have many things in common with Luther apart from shared trauma, but a little conversation couldn’t hurt, right?

“Sooooo… have you figured things out with Ally?”

Ben sighed looking at the sky as if it could give him answers, and Klaus had to give it to him. He didn’t really choose the best ice-breaker as Luther’s murderous glare confirmed.

“There is nothing to figure out.”

And that should have been Klaus’ cue to end the conversation or at least change the subject, but if it was true that he was never really close to Luther, it was also right to say that he had been Allison’s best friend for a period of time.

And he really cared about his sister, no matter how sour their relationship was now.

Allison’s hurt face was still too bright in his memory and the mere thought of his sister having to go through the same kind of rejection he had suffered all his life was not acceptable to him.

So he carried on.

“I’m just saying that now that dear old daddy isn’t here anymore you could… I don’t know… have a life! Move on! With Allison!”

Luther grunted and kept moving, face contorted in rage and Klaus really should try to stop now, but he wanted to make sure that Luther wasn’t condemning Allison and himself to a life in half because of their father’s words.

“If it’s because of what Dad said about… you know. It wasn’t your fault. No one thinks it was. And Ben doesn’t blame you _at all_!”

Luther grabbed him by the shirt and lifted him two feet in the air.

“Stop talking about things you don’t know.”

Klaus stumbled on the ground when Luther released him.

“I’m just worried for you, big guy. You deserve a chance at happiness, you live too much in the past.”

“Because I see you happy with your soulmate, yeah?”

Those words were meant to sting.

They were meant to go right through his heart and hit where it hurt the most, just like Klaus’ had done to him.

Still, neither Luther nor Klaus really meant any harm to the other. So when Luther turned his gaze away from him and unclenched his fists, Klaus pretended nothing happened. He was good at that.

“Come on, Lu. That’s Five.”

* * *

The family reunion went as well as expected with Luther proposing to murder their Mum after accusing them of murdering their father a reunion earlier.

Klaus was confused by Luther’s reasoning. He was confused by Luther’s everything.

And it wasn’t the fever talking, though Klaus could feel that it was quite high.

He powered through the whole pitiful meeting as stoically as he could, ignoring the goosebumps and the sweat erupting on his skin as he went from toohot-godI’mgonnacollapse to toofuckingcold-I’mgonnadie.

He was almost glad that Diego was too upset by what they were discussing to really notice anything. If he did, Klaus could kiss goodbye his dreams of going cold-turkey without creepy suicidal ghosts from rehab.

Still, he saw in Diego’s eyes how much the discussion had shocked him so he looked for him after a while to make sure he was okay.

He found him in the living room twirling a knife in his hand in a very nervous gesture, his back and shoulders tense like Vanya’s violin strings.

“What do you want, Klaus?” he asked as soon as he saw him and Klaus ignored the false irritation in his words.

“I think it’s time for our brotherly bonding, bro.” he sauntered to the couch, flopping heavily next to Diego but careful not to touch him.

Usually, Klaus’ temperature was a lot colder than average so it was difficult for other people to tell when he was running a fever as he would basically reach a normal person’s body temperature. But Diego could always tell when he was “too hot”.

“We have too much of that already” his brother grumbled, but ruined the brooding image by smiling softly, eyes still on the knife.

“You hurt me, Dee”

He let his head dramatically fall against Diego’s shoulder, the fabric of his worn sweater scratching his fevered skin.

“You smell” Diego stated and Klaus made sure he could see his pout.

“Well, your showers ain’t exactly heaven, babe.”

Diego sighed, huffing a laugh. “Just be sure that when I get back to my flat I find everything in its place.”

Klaus let the silence fall over them for a few minutes, and quietly spoke “You know we’re not going to just let them kill Mum, right?”

He felt Diego tense beside him and he lifted his head from his shoulder, looking up to him “We’re not. No matter what they decide.”

Diego smiled slowly and uncertainly “Damn right we’re not.”

Klaus let his head fall on Diego’s shoulder once again, satisfied. He closed his eyes, letting his brother have the privacy he needed to be vulnerable and at the same time taking the comfort he unknowingly provided, wishing that he could just let himself be coddled and looked after.

Klaus breathed deeply as Diego’s taut muscles slowly relaxed, praying for this moment of calmness to never end.

The medium had to admit that he did stink, but that’s what rummaging through a garbage can would do to you, so he grabbed his things and prepared for a long and relaxing bath, only to be delayed by a sudden wave of very rude nausea.

“Are you keeping this a secret from Diego too?” Ben asked disapprovingly.

Klaus’ answer was another wave of vomit in the toilet and a groan. Either Ben brought him a herbal tea or he kept. His. Mouth. Shut.

“’ve my reas’ns” he mumbled.

“Right.”

Klaus interrupted the ghostly sassiness by vomiting bile this time, wow. Wonderful. Just wonderful.

Once the nausea calmed down he stood on his trembling limbs, his body drenched in sweat as he lowered himself in the tub of warm water.

And of course, that’s when the ghosts decided it was time to act up. Not like Klaus was already trying to combat a head-splitting migraine.

Before any flashes of too small rooms, stone walls, hands reaching him and voices calling his name could take hold of his fever-addled mind, he grabbed his headphones and raised the volume high enough to drown out the sound of the spirits’ screaming.

He lost himself in the music, purposefully ignoring anything happening outside, eyes closed and mind far away in his happiest places.

And for the first time in his life, his bond was there to provide comfort.

That’s why once he was out of the tub, instead of dancing towards Diego’s direction as he usually did when he was in need of a distraction, he danced towards his room, where he picked up a glittery purple pen and started drawing mindless things on his arm.

To the sound of the song blasting in his ears, he asked the question he’d been longing for an answer since he was eight.

_What’s your name?_

Anxiety and tension threating to build up in his head, he raised the volume of his music even higher, ignoring his tired limbs as he closed his eyes and danced away, still in his towel and slightly wet.

Minutes were crawling by and his hope for an immediate answer was slowly crumbling, but he was suddenly distracted by a movement in his room.

He opened his eyes just as something hard hit him on the head.

He felt himself crumble to the ground, music still blowing in his ears, pumping to the rhythm of the pounding in his head. 

The last thing he felt were strong, bruising arms dragging him on the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4 snippet (coming in a week!): 
> 
> “What the hell was that?” Luther asked him, concerned.  
> “Nothing, let’s go.”  
> “That wasn’t nothing, what happened?” his brother looked him closely “It was from your bond, wasn’t it?”  
> [...]  
> Diego snarled at him “I had a vision. It’s the first time that’s ever happened. That’s all. Now, can we go back to finding our brothers?”


	4. Hold On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diego's life is turned upside down as he tries to save the people who mean the most to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it! 
> 
> I'm very nervous about this chapter as many things happen and, as you'll see, we start to go away from the canon events of season 1.   
> Hope you like it!

**1955 – Infinite Switchboard Room**

_“Play it.” she said sweetly, voice like melted honey._

_“But, ma’am, this is highly classif…”_

_“I’d do as she says if I were you.”_

_The younger girl pressed the blade harder against the operator’s neck, a trickle of blood sliding slowly against his skin._

_“Y-yes.”_

_The man fiddled with the switchboard once again and the video came back to life._

_The Handler’s eyes shined brightly as she watched the scene play out for the second time: amid the soldiers and gunshots flooding the small screen, it was too easy to notice the intruder._

_She observed carefully how Number Five spotted his prey, recognized him and failed to conclude the mission._

_“This messes up everything.” The young girl spoke up, irritation lacing her accented voice._

_“On the contrary, my dear.” The Handler stated, a smile playing on her red lips. “This is great news for us.”_

_“Why?”_

_The Handler tapped the screen with her long fingernail as the video paused, showing the fuzzy image of a naked man covered only by a bloody towel._

_She turned away, leaving the room with slow and sure steps, delighted in hearing the girl slit the operator’s throat without hesitation._

_“Because” she intoned with hungry eyes, opening the door of the room. “Now we know Number Five’s weakness.”_

* * *

**March 15, 2019**

A few hours and Diego’s life was destroyed.

He felt humiliated by how easy it had been for two strangers to completely annihilate him. All it took was a few carefully aimed hits and all that Diego cared for seemed to disappear into nothing.

And what did he do? He fought, sure. But had it been enough?

_A hero has no fear. A hero knows nothing but their mission._

Diego had fallen on this old mantra that their father had repeated over and over back when the Academy was still made of six children.

_A hero has no fear. A hero knows nothing but their mission._

His mind recited again as he fell on the steps outside of Eudora’s house, tears staining his face. He tried not to be afraid. But he was petrified.

The two most important people of his life had gone. Disappeared. Killed.

“Oh, God” Diego curled in on himself, holding his head as if to conceal his pathetic sobbing.

He had killed his Mum.

He hadn’t protected Klaus and now he was gone too. Vanished, probably kidnapped by the two weirdos.

Diego felt the bile rise in him as he recalled the blood staining Klaus’ carpet, all his clothes still in the bedroom, an uncapped pen and headphones abandoned on the floor.

After he found the empty room, Luther had dumbly pointed out that Five was nowhere to be seen as well, but Five wasn’t at the Academy when they were attacked, Klaus was.

Diego was sure the bastards had taken him in a desperate attempt to get to their smallest brother.

The vigilante was up all night looking for Klaus but had no luck in finding him. Luther and Allison had scoured the east side of the city while Diego hunted all the hidden places the rest of the town had to offer.

As soon as he was done with Eudora he would get back on his search and wander further in the suburbs, hoping against hope that Klaus had merely disappeared to look for his next high.

_A hero has no fear. A hero knows nothing but their mission._

He hated these words much as he despised anything coming from his father, but the alternative was to succumb to the fear of losing another brother. The alternative to those wretched words was hearing the gun that killed Ben play out in his mind, the thump of the young body falling on the ground and the sound of his brother – his best friend – drawing his last breath.

Klaus couldn’t die like Ben had. None of his siblings would die. Not under Diego’s watch.

No one threatens his family.

The vigilante scratched his arm, feeling the panic rise in him as another problem – one that he had been trying with all his might to just _push aside_ – was slowly becoming more and more pressing.

No reply.

None at all.

He had written his name again and again every three hours, partly because he needed the distraction from his endless search of his brother, partly because he was getting desperate for the sweet connection that had been missing since the attack.

Now that he had experienced it, now that he understood what it was like to mutually nurture the bond – not just feel it in a one-way direction – he couldn’t get enough, even if what Eric and him had right now was a poor excuse of a bond who had been walked over by him one too many times.

He didn’t want to make mistakes again, but he was growing more and more desperate because his soulmate just wouldn’t reply, and the bond was getting submerged by constant waves of pain and fear and anxiety that were shaking him to the bone.

At first Diego thought those awfully clear emotions had been coming from within himself but as the hours passed – and no reply came, his arm completely _empty_ – the vigilante realized that they came from Eric.

What was happening? What was going on?

Distress, soreness, terror, bone deep panic and _hurtsomuchhurt_ were flowing without pause from the bond.

Diego dreaded to think that other than his Mum and Klaus he also had to add Eric to the list of people he was failing, the fear that he had arrived too late and their bond was finally severing forever was too much of a possibility for him.

Then a horrible thought came to plague him.

A doubt, a poisonous idea that had been nagging at him since the attack. A decades-old rejection coming back to the surface without any warning.

Had this happened because of his soulmate?

The rational part of Diego’s brain knew that this was bullshit. How could his soulmate have anything to do with the two assassins that were looking for Five and had kidnapped Klaus?

But the panic that Diego was feeling, the fear for Klaus’ safety, all the guilt that was tormenting him was slowly mixing with a deep-rooted belief that his father had ingrained in him since his childhood.

_“The bond is a liability, Number Two.”_

And it was.

Ben was dead because of a soulmate bond. _Will Klaus die because of **his** bond?_

How could he have thought that it was alright for someone like him to talk to his soulmate?

How could _Number Two_ ever dare nurture the bond?

Maybe if he had left things as they were with Eric and their feeble connection then this wouldn’t have happened. Maybe Diego was never meant to be happy with him. Maybe _itwasallhisfault_ …

“Diego?”

Diego sat up quickly.

“Who did you piss off this time?” Patch’s amused voice told him that she didn’t catch him drying his tears.

“Found anything?”

Diego remained seated, hoping that she had some information he could use but Eudora merely sighed and sat next to him.

“I got two guys in kid’s masks, rare bullet cases, a fingerprint from a 1930 cold case and a mysterious schoolboy. Fair to say we’re still in the dark.”

The vigilante did all he could not to groan his frustration. This was a waste of time.

He got up and made to leave without looking back when Patch held his wrist in a surprisingly tight grip.

“Okay, what’s going on? You could have called me for an update. What happened?”

Diego set his jaw, not looking her in the eyes. He needed to find Klaus, there was no time for this.

“You went after the two suspects, didn’t you?” she accused.

Something about her disappointed voice that reminded him so much of his father - or maybe it was the confusion that had been weighting on him all night – suddenly ignited a rage he had managed to keep quiet since the attack.

She had no right in accusing him. Not after what happened.

“No, THEY were in my house. They attacked my family! Now two of my brothers are missing, and I’m positive the bastards took at least one of them.”

“What?” Patch had paled “Are you sure about this?”

Diego levelled her with a hard stare and got free from her hold on his wrist. “I need to go.”

“Diego. If there’s a missing person you need to let the police handle it.”

“No, Eudora! If my brothers are in danger, you won’t be able to bring them back _alive_. Not with your procedures and your paperwork!” he shouted.

“We are talking about people’s lives here, Diego. You playing this game is putting them in danger.”

“Don’t.” he growled.

They held each other’s gazes in silence, a challenge clear in the tense air.

After a few stretched moments, he finally sighed, feeling defeated for some reason he couldn’t really comprehend.

“No wonder we didn’t last.”

“Yeah.” she agreed, all fight leaving her at once.

Despite his belief that Eudora and her strict ways won’t take her anywhere near Klaus’ kidnappers, he showed her in the Academy praying to a God he didn’t really believe in that no one would spot them.

Fortunately, Patch was able to investigate Klaus’ room and some of the places where they had fought with the two intruders without being interrupted.

If this wasn’t proof of how desperate Diego was then he didn’t really know what could be.

When Patch walked away with a small smile and a promise to get back to him as soon as she had new information, Diego felt even more upset than he was before.

He didn’t know how to handle the confusion, the doubts, the blame, the r _age_.

He almost cried when he found himself wishing for that comforting sweetness that the bond had emitted just the day before.

**_Please, tell me you’re there_ **

When he wrote, he pressed the pen hard against his skin, enough to feel the pressure long after he set the pen back in his pocket.

No matter what his feelings were telling him, he couldn’t help but feel worried for Eric as well, especially when the bond couldn’t seem to stop sending him signals of panic and danger.

But he needed to prioritize. And Klaus would always come first to him.

He sighed and tried to come up with a new plan because he knew that Eudora would never be able to find his brother if she went through with all the right procedures and paperwork. It’d take her all morning just to file the missing person’s report.

Purposely avoiding the place where he had left his Mum and definitely not thinking about what he had done to her, lest he found himself stuck in a never ending spiral of guilt, he went straight to Five’s room.

There was a distant possibility that Five knew their assailants and where to find them. That is if the two bastards hadn’t already managed to kidnap him as well.

Finding Luther and Pogo in his little brother’s room certainly didn’t help lift his mood. 

“I thought you were looking on the east side.” He reprimanded Luther harshly as soon as he spotted him crouching under Five’s desk.

His brother got up and with his nervous and awkward gaze that almost looked gentle, he opened his mouth a few times and finally stumbled on his words.

“Diego. Do you know about Mu-“

“Stop.” Diego interrupted him, he was not ready to face that. “You got what you wanted. As usual.”

“What are you doing here, Diego?” Luther sighed frustratedly.

The vigilante took pride in his talent of irritating Luther with only a few well-measured words. He’d always been the best at it.

“Our brothers are missing.” he spelled out, talking slowly and levelling the man with a hard stare. “And you should be looking for Klaus on the east side as we planned.”

Luther scoffed and Diego felt the urge to throw a knife at him.

“Yeah, a really good plan, that.”

“You wanna say something, you spit it out, asshole.”

“Your plan won’t save anyone.”

“Saving people is what I do.”

“Last I checked you got our brother kidnapped.”

Diego tensed, hand closing over his knife. “T-that’s not t-t-true.”

He grimaced at his own stutter, setting his jaw and looking straight in Luther’s eyes. He understood exactly what his brother was doing.

Number One knew very well how much Diego was guilt tripping himself for Klaus’ disappearance and he used it to his own advantage, taking a small revenge for a past mistake.

It was childish of Luther, yes, but deep down Diego knew he probably deserved it, the accusing words he had shouted at him when they were just kids, burying Ben forever, were still ringing in his head.

And now Luther’s message was clear as day: if he had been the cause of Ben’s death, then this time Diego would be Klaus’s.

The vigilante had been wrong in accusing him of his brother’s death. Of course, he had. But he was sixteen at the time. Now they were thirty and this was a very low blow for someone who was supposed to be the leader.

So Diego did what he knew best.

He attacked.

“You were here as well, Luther. I guess you were too worried that your dear Allison might see the monster you’ve become.”

Luther grinded his teeth together, watching him with pure hatred in his eyes but Diego held his head high, the need to win the argument and cancel his brother’s accusations was too strong.

He was glad that Luther’s fist against the wardrobe didn’t even make him flinch. He smiled cruelly and he went for the final blow, aiming where he knew it would hurt the most, words as cutting as his knives.

“Let me ask you a question.” Diego said, taking a step forward “Did you refuse Allison now because you can’t get it up for her anymore? She’s not the one that makes it for you, right? Do you look at those nature docum-”

Pogo’s outraged voice stopped him and Diego closed his mouth automatically, getting back to himself and immediately regretting everything he was saying.

Luther wasn’t looking at him, observing his feet as if they were the most peculiar thing he’d ever seen.

The vigilante felt sick at himself. He went too far.

He knew now how much the pain of a broken bond hurt and he had only experienced it for a few minutes at a time, he couldn’t really imagine what Luther was going through, as he was almost sure that if his bond with Allison wasn’t severed then it must be very close to it.

When they walked out of the room, away from Pogo’s hard gaze, Luther turned to him, speaking slowly.

“I think I know where we could find Five. Let’s meet outside of the Academy in a few minutes.”

Diego nodded and hurried to take the rest of his knives, trying to get a hold of himself.

He needed to apologize somehow.

The thought of saying sorry to Luther of all people was physically sickening but he knew he had crossed a line.

As he was climbing the stairs he was suddenly taken over by a wave of dizziness and nausea that made him stumble on the steps.

He vaguely felt the hard ground beneath his cheek, as he screwed his eyes shut, reality fading away in waves of pain…

_A woman was speaking Russian, quick and desperate, her nasal voice filling the room and why couldn’t she just shut up? He couldn’t think, he couldn’t focus, he couldn’t…_

_Pain. In every inch of his body, there was blood on his chest. He was naked, he was cold. His head hurt the most, but what they did with those knives, God it had hurt. They would start again soon, he knew it, they would…_

_An itch he wasn’t quite able to scratch, a need he couldn’t pinpoint, maybe the sweet relief of vodka or a small little joint to take the edge off and get him far away from this situation. No, no, he couldn’t, he needed to…_

_His skin was on fire, he was burning. Too hot, too hot, too hot. Sweat was pearling his feverish skin and he was going to be sick again, he knew it. The stench of vomit was still lingering in the room from that morning. He was so ill, he was going to die, he was…_

_His hands were tied. His feet too. He was stuck on a chair and the room was too damn small, he had been here for hours. No one was coming, why was no one helping him? He couldn’t even see his forearm, he had lost the chance to know the name, he lost…_

Suddenly he was back, aware of his surroundings, sprawled on the stairs.

The waves of pain coming through the bond were stronger than ever, pumping loudly in his ears, screaming for help.

It took a few moments to gather his breathing and come down from whatever the hell just happened.

He had never experienced this kind of connection.

He had read about it. He knew that the bond was more than writing on his arm and sharing emotions, but he wasn’t prepared for this. This terrified cry for help, a plea so clear from his soulmate that was burning through him.

He took the pen out of his pocket with shaking hands, trying to steady his writing as much as he could.

**_I’m coming, Eric. Hold on._ **

Klaus first.

Then he would turn the world on his axis to help his soulmate.

He hurried to his room to take as many knives as he could find, pushing down his nausea and suppressing the desperation that seemed stuck to him like a disease.

His hands were trembling as he set the knives and his harness and he huffed at himself, he needed to get a fucking grip.

He thundered down the stairs and met Luther outside.

“What took you so long?”

Diego ignored him, not trusting himself to speak yet and they hurried towards the lab, in a part of the city that Diego didn’t often go to.

He felt the impulse to scan every back alley and abandoned building for Klaus, but he stuck to the plan. They found the van and Diego made a happy dance in his head as he found the most important clue of the day on Five’s whereabouts, eat that Luther!

The library was quite far away, but the car was even further so they decided to walk there.

The road to their destination wasn’t easy for Diego.

He had made sure to walk a step ahead of Luther – which was quite the endeavour given the size of the man’s steps – so that he couldn’t see his face and at the same time Diego could keep a resemblance of leadership that he so much needed right now.

He had to distract himself from the increasing feeling of fear and dread, a terror so deep it was getting difficult to breathe. Whatever his soulmate was going through right now, it was terrifying him like never before and now that Diego had experienced the vision, it seemed like a dam had opened, all the emotions Eric was feeling were magnified to him.

The desperation coming from his bond grew so much that when they made their final turn towards the library, Diego felt his balance give away again and with a plea of _notnownotinfrontofLuther_ , he felt himself slip…

_Too small. Too small. Too small. Too small._

_The walls were caving in, he was trapped, he was stuck, he was never going to get out of this alive._

_He was young again, cold and helpless and begging. The voices were growing louder, the walls were even closer than before._

_Too small. Too small. Too small. Too small._

_He thrashed against his restraints, feeling the burning of the rope against his wrists bringing him back to reality for some instants._

_Something was keeping his mouth shut, muffling his shouts so he just yelled louder and louder but no one would hear him. He was alone in this closet._

_Too small. Too small. Too small. Too small._

_The walls turned to stone again and he was back in that cold, cold place and he was begging but the voices were louder and no one would hear him, they would get to him, they wanted to hurt him, please let me out, Dad, please let me out let me out let me out let me out let me out…_

He threw up on the streets and suddenly he was back in himself, with Luther’s hand holding him and the disgusting smell of his own vomit below him.

He hurried out of Luther’s grasp mumbling to him that he was fine but he was still panting, the thrum from his bond stronger and also extremely uncomfortable.

“What the hell was that?” Luther asked him, concerned.

“Nothing, let’s go.”

Diego grimaced at how broken his voiced sounded.

“That wasn’t nothing, what happened?” Luther looked him up and down, and realization struck him “It was from your bond, wasn’t it?”

“Let’s just go.”

“Look, I know you don’t like me but I’m probably the one that knows more about bonds in this family, unless you want to talk about it with Pogo.” Luther reasoned, while they entered the library.

Diego had half a mind of snarling at him and stomp away, but he merely sighed as he looked at his brother’s sincere eyes.

“I had a vision. It’s the first time that’s ever happened. That’s all. Now, can we go back to finding our brothers?”

Luther visibly hesitate as he looked at the vigilante’s trembling form, his pale and sweaty face turning more and more frustrated as seconds passed by. The taller man finally nodded and Diego couldn’t help but sigh in relief as they split up to look for Five.

The vigilante felt a lump in his throat grow larger and heavier as he slowly searched the library in vain.

Five wasn’t there.

By the time he reached the last floor of the building, Diego let himself fall on the ground, defeated, desperate and exhausted.

Luther crouched in front of him and for the first time in forever, Diego didn’t mind the pitying look that twisted his brother’s features. He knew very well he wasn’t a pretty sight in that moment.

“I didn’t know your bond was strong enough for shared visions”

“That makes two of us” Diego sighed, hoping that would end the conversation.

“I miss Ally’s visions” he confessed “She always shared them when she was listening to a song I liked.”

Feeling the weight of his brother’s longing, Diego let the silence stretch a bit more until it turned into awkwardness, and finally he decided that if Luther wanted to make things uncomfortable, then he would play his game.

“I really don’t get why you don’t try it again with her.”

Luther’s earnest face closed off in a matter of seconds.

“Look, about e-earlier, I-I’m…” Diego started, stumbling through his stutter and discomfort “I’m an asshole.”

This was as far as he could get. He couldn’t apologize to Luther. It just wasn’t right.

He didn’t expect his brother to acknowledge the effort, that’s why he was so surprised when he heard him speak up.

“Our bond is severed. After my transformation.” Luther clenched his fists “I can’t write to her anymore, I tried. Many times.”

Diego remained silent, the gravity of the situation hitting him full force. Had his father still been alive, he would have gladly pulled the trigger himself.

“Guess you’re happy about that.” Luther scoffed, waking him from the haze that had took over his brain.

“What? What the hell are you saying?”

“Our bond made more trouble than anything else. Ben…”

“No, Luther.” He interrupted “I know I was the one who blamed you but Ben had just died and we were kids. I didn’t know any better than to find someone to blame.”

Luther’s eyes were dangerously shining with tears and all of Diego was begging him to stop and run away from this, but it was a problem he had created and he needed to be the one who put an end to it.

“You’re not to blame. Dad was. He is the only one responsible for Ben’s death.”

Luther hugged himself in what seemed like a pitying attempt at making himself as small as possible.

Should Diego hug him? He didn’t really want to. God, this was uncomfortable. It looked like Luther might need a hug. Maybe he should…

They were both saved from what was going to be a terribly awkward show of emotions in a public place by two students giggling to each other about a passed-out kid.

Their suspicions turned out to be correct when they found him.

Five was there, drunk as a skunk but Klaus was nowhere to be seen.

So apparently they were looking for a Hazel and a Cha Cha.

“Focus, Five. Where could they be hiding?”

Five looked at him like he was the most stupid person alive, and how he could manage that when drunk and hanging on Luther and that mannequin was a mystery to Diego.

“You won’t ever find them.” he slurred, giggling.

Diego threw his hands in the air, suppressing a scream of frustration.

“We need to.” Luther stated, levelling Five with his ‘do as you’re told’ stare.

“Mm?” Five’s head lolled to him, his features looking greener in the lamppost light.

“Listen here, you asshole. Klaus was kidnapped by these bastards. He’s been missing for a whole day, we need to find him.”

That seemed to sober him up completely, his dulled eyes turning sharp and dangerous again.

“What?” his nasal voice resonated through the alley where the back door to the gym was left ajar. “Fuck. I told him to stay with you all times.”

“What are you saying?” Luther asked confused.

“I should have known. I should have prevented it. He’ll already be in the middle of the Vietnam war now. Fuck. You have to hurry, he’ll…”

Five stopped mid-sentence, leaning over Luther and vomiting loudly.

Luther and Diego looked at each other wearily. Five had been no help at all. He was so drunk he wasn’t even making sense.

As they made their way to the gym, with a now unconscious Five, Diego tried to convey reassurance through his bond, feeling the waves of danger and terror and pure exhaustion getting more and more pungent.

He could feel that another vision would come soon, the clearness of Eric’s emotions was making it hard to focus on his own, the lines between their two souls were blurring into one as the minutes passed.

Then Eudora saved the day for him. Her message from Al was like a gift.

He run to where she said they were keeping Klaus, trying hard to bury down the pain from the bond, though it was getting increasingly difficult not to fall prey to it.

All the discomfort was now concentrated on his forehead, like someone had been repeatedly punching his soulmate there.

No matter how hard Diego tried, he wasn’t able to hold it back any longer. He fell on his knees as suddenly another vision had him gasping for breath.

_Free._

_His vision was blurred, the woman was talking but he couldn’t see or hear clearly. There was blood in his eyes and his ears were still ringing, he was definitely going to have a gigantic bump on his forehead._

_The kind woman freed his wrists and he immediately looked at his forearm, he couldn’t see. He wiped the blood from his eyes, panting in anticipation. His vision was still blurred but he could see that his skin was clean. No writings._

_He lost his chance to know the name._

_The blurry figure of the woman pushed him out of the way and he lost his balance, falling on the bed and then hitting his head on the floor._

_He was dazed for a few seconds then he noticed a small passageway. He could escape this hell._

_A gunshot._

_He hurried inside the vent, pushing the briefcase that blocked his way._

_He needed out._

_Out out out out out._

It took a lot more than he expected to get back from this vision and he was guiltily angry at his soulmate from distracting him like that, though he knew Eric probably couldn’t help it.

Deep down he had to admit that if neither of them knew how to control this thing it was down to Diego who had refused contact him for all these years.

He was very close to the motel when it happened.

A moment earlier the bond was giving him peace, finally replacing all the terror and the dread for relief, and he found himself breathing a little easier knowing that his soulmate felt safe again. And then…

It was gone.

He fell on the ground.

Gone.

He couldn’t breathe.

Empty.

His eyes wouldn’t focus.

Gone.

_Eric was gone. Gone, gone, gone, gone._

Diego couldn’t feel him, it was worse than the other times it happened. It dragged on, minute after minute after minute. He heard a scream and it took him too long to realize that it came from him, he was crying.

He had felt a gunshot in the last vision, had it killed him? Had the gunshot happened in his mind or was it coming from the motel?

He was vaguely aware of police sirens around him and with a slowness that was surrounded by pain and void, and God it hurt so much, he realized that an ambulance and several police cars were gathered around the motel.

He got himself to his feet again and stomped towards them.

A barrel was carrying Eudora, a shot through her chest. He felt himself going forward screaming her name.

Someone was holding him back, he closed his eyes _he was alone, alone, alone, alone so fucking alone and empty_.

“Where’s Klaus? WHERE’S MY BROTHER?”

He felt himself screaming and wondered how he was sounding so desperate when inside his mind it was like a wave of resignation had taken over, dulling the anger he knew he should be feeling.

He was almost sure that a second barrel with a second body would follow Eudora’s but there was nothing.

There was nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 5 snippet:
> 
> Klaus kept scratching on his chest, he had no idea emptiness could be feel so uncomfortable, but he hid it focusing all of his attention on Diego.   
> "My soulmate died. Patch died."  
> Klaus' hand fell on his lap.  
> Oh.


	5. Severed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus is trying really hard to understand why his broken bond acts up around Diego, while Five encounters his greatest enemy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there!  
> First of all, sorry for the late update I was full of work yesterday, but here we are now!   
> This chapter is completely canon divergent and finally the plot is starting to move on. I'm very excited to know what you think of this.   
> (I'm going to say sorry in advance for the fighting scene, I am shit at writing those)
> 
> Thank you so much for your comments, they are my writing fuel

**1955 – The Commission’s Headquarters**

_On October 1, 1989 the most bizarre phenomenon had occurred and Reginald Hargreeves wasn’t the only one who took interested in it._

_The Handler had to admit that the man had done a neat little job in gathering some of the most powerful children._

_But his aim? To save the world?_

_How pathetic._

_That raw power encapsuled in those tiny gullible creatures could become the greatest thing in the universe._

_It shouldn’t be wasted like that._

_She going to make sure that every single drop of power wouldn’t be lost._

_She had time on her side. So she used it._

_She waited and saw where Hargreeves’ experiments on the children would take him._

_She waited and observed._

_Not just Hargreeves’ pets, but all of the 43 wonders. She even got one of them for herself, a perfect tool to grow into the perfect weapon to unleash against the Academy at the right moment._

_However amongst the 43, she had a favourite and it was slowly becoming her greatest obsession._

_Little Number Five._

_He had managed to mess the timeline all on his own. She had observed him closely all these years and yes._

_He was going to be hers._

_Her dainty fingers thrummed on her new toy, a metallic case being poked by the needles of a technician._

_“How long?”_

_“We’re still years behind. This is very advanced technology, ma’am.”_

_“Keep working.” She ordered, her icy eyes finally looking the scrawny woman in the eyes and she revelled in the shudder they provoked._

_AJ shall never know about this. The Commission would never understand and they would never allow it._

_The Handler stepped out of the room, the heavy folder clutched safely in her hands, stroking it like she would a child._

_She locked the door of the laboratory and walked down the corridor with purpose._

_As soon as she arrived in her office, she closed the blinds and moved the carpet. A hidden trapdoor was pulled open to reveal a briefcase._

_With a flash, she arrived at a different time, in a different place._

_Pleas and yells and threats could be heard from every cell._

_43 cells were ready, only 15 already occupied._

_It was time to prepare another seven. It was time to move forward with her plan._

_All that potential. All that power._

_It was going to be hers._

* * *

**1968 – Shaun Valley, Vietnam**

Bombs falling, shots ringing, men screaming.

Blood, smoke, dirt.

_Emptiness._

Klaus fell on the ground, dropping the briefcase to clutch his hands on his chest.

He was empty. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think.

He tried to suck air into his lungs but all his body needed was the connection that had suddenly disappeared into nothing.

It took him a few seconds to tune in the sounds around him and when he did, he realized that the bond was the last of his problems.

He was in the middle of a battlefield.

There were soldiers running all around him, screaming orders and yelling in pain.

Everywhere he looked there were men dying and fighting and killing, the sounds of gunshots and bombs deafening all others.

Had he gone mad?

Had he lost it completely?

He must have died. Maybe he hadn’t survived his two torturers and that was it. This was hell.

A group of soldiers ran past him, guns held high and boots thumping the ground heavily. Klaus met the gazes of some of the men whose fear-stricken features turned confused and wondering at his mostly naked body sprawled on the mud.

He wasn’t dead. He couldn’t be.

The briefcase had brought him to this nightmare, maybe it could take him away from it as well.

Klaus reached with trembling hands for the case to drag it close to him through the bloody mud. As his fingers looped into the handle, he heard a scream pierce the field.

“GRENAAAAADE”

He saw the group of soldiers from before fall on the ground trying to cover themselves and then the world exploded.

When he came to again he was slumped on the ground, several feet away from his initial landing place.

His ears were ringing and he couldn’t focus on anything.

He hoisted himself on his elbows only to lean on his side, his lungs suddenly failing him as he coughed harshly for what felt like an eternity. As he finally managed to regulate his breathing, he found his mouth invaded by a metallic liquid.

He spat the blood on the ground, feeling it trickle down his chin. Dazedly, he made another attempt at standing up, only to find himself on his knees again, throwing up bile and blood.

He brought a hand to his temple and groaned when it came back red, a piercing pain splitting his head in two making everything seem slower and more difficult to understand.

He slipped again as he tried to stand up, but this time he stayed still.

He would die here.

Alone. Severed. Forgotten.

He tried to feel for Ben but gave up soon, realizing that he was too weak to summon him and it was probably for the best. He didn’t need his brother to see him like this.

He wallowed in his loneliness, surrendering to the emptiness he was feeling inside of him, numb to any kind of hope or solution.

Klaus had been plagued for most of his life by a bond that was never strong but forever suffering, however that kind of pain was nothing compared to the void he was feeling in that moment.

Blurry figures were running around him, their yells coming muffled to his ears and soon it was all too much. Klaus closed his eyes and waited for darkness to overcome him forever.

It probably would have worked and he would have finally died in peace if it weren’t for the insisting hand shaking his shoulder.

“Klaus?”

A man was looking straight at him with a terrified expression. Did he know him?

“W’ss g’ng on?”

Talking was quite difficult when his head felt this fuzzy. 

The man was stricken with fear and Klaus felt a bit insulted when he realized the stranger looked more afraid of him than the hell they were surrounded by.

Sure, he didn’t look great right now but he couldn’t be worse than anybody there.

“It can’t be you”

The man dragged him on his feet, his tight grip around Klaus’ bicep was the only thing keeping him upright when the world tilted on its axis.

Klaus was hauled across the field, his legs working effectively on their own only after they were already halfway to an abandoned trench.

It didn’t look very safe, but the man ignored his mumbles and soon Klaus was too worried about not throwing up again to continue with his stuttered protests.

After they jumped behind the trench, Klaus let his legs fall under him and he slipped on the ground, closing his eyes at the spinning world. He felt the man forcefully take Klaus’ arm to reveal the Umbrella Academy tattoo on his wrist.

“No. No, no, no, no. What the fuck are you doing here?” he sounded desperate.

“Who are you?” Klaus asked in return, close to sobbing “Where am I?”

This was too much. Couldn’t it end already? He’ll take a painful death over this any day.

Incredibly, the man looked like he was having a harder time than Klaus, his breaths coming in ragged as if he was about to hyperventilate. As much as the medium could relate to the feeling, he just wished the funny looking man with his funny looking moustache would just answer his questions.

When the stranger finally calmed down, he looked him in the eyes with resolution.

“Have you already seen me in your timeline?”

“What? I- what?” Klaus searched his eyes desperately “Please, just tell me what’s going on.”

“Klaus, there is no time. Answer me.”

“How d’you know m’name?”

An explosion erupted not far from where they were hiding and the man threw himself on him, squishing him to the ground as a cloud of dust and rubble descended on the trench.

“Why are you here?” the man screamed as he straightened again.

“T-the briefcase” Klaus wheezed “Two guys in masks, t-they were looking for my br’ther and I…”

The medium’s slurred words turned into another coughing fit that left him breathless but saw how the man’s eyes widened in horror.

“What? Fuck. _She_ is going to find out.” He dropped his gun beside Klaus and stood up, looking over the trench “You need to get back. Where’s the briefcase?”

Klaus blinked, confusion clouding his brain as he tried to recall what happened to it.

The man disappeared in a blue flash before he could say anything else.

_That’s familiar_ Klaus thought fuzzily, eyes slowly closing against his will.

The numbness was once again taking hold of his being, cruel and desperate. He wanted to scream.

He fell on the muddy ground and covered his ears. He was going to die here. Maybe he should just run back into that hell and get it over with quickly.

He had never felt this empty.

His soulmate was dead. They were dead. He was alone.

_So alone._

He closed his eyes, letting the tears fall freely, ready to give up when suddenly the man appeared right next to him.

_Oh._

Klaus looked at the man, really looked at him and realized what made him stand out from the other soldiers.

He had a uniform, yes. But it was clean and it seemed new. The gun he was carrying was different from what the other soldiers had and he held a briefcase, identical to the one that had brought him to this nightmarish place.

“F-five?” he whispered.

The man stopped and for a second Klaus thought he saw a shadow in his eyes, but it was gone before either of them could address it.

“Klaus, listen to me. You need to open the briefcase and get to a safe place. Whoever you took it from is going to do anything they can to get it back. Klaus, you hear me? When you’re back there, you need to find _me_. They are going to kill you otherwise.”

He looked him dead in the eyes and handed him the briefcase.

“I hope to see you soon.” Five whispered and disappeared.

Klaus looked around and, swallowing the lump in his throat, he opened the briefcase.

* * *

**March 16, 2019 – Boiler’s Room**

Things couldn’t have gone worse.

Five knew it was his fault. Dolores had told him not to drink all that wine and, as usual, she was right.

He paced the length of the small room that Diego called home, trying to get rid of the manic energy that pervaded his body and made it hard to think.

Luther was telling him what happened last night when he was out getting drunk out of his mind, explaining how Hazel and Cha Cha had attacked the Academy to look for him and apparently had kidnapped Klaus instead.

He must have already time travelled to Vietnam, there was no way Five could prevent it now. The boy tried to control his breathing in front of Luther, but truth was that he was absolutely terrified.

Now The Handler would know just how much he was willing to risk in order to save his family. He could only wish that she didn’t get a hold of Klaus.

This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all.

“We need to f…” Five was interrupted as the door of the flat slammed open.

Diego marched down the stairs quickly, hands on his knives and eyes trained on him.

Five immediately recognized the threat for what it was and backed away, knowing that if Diego really wanted to hit him, he wouldn’t stand much of a chance in escaping. He definitely wasn’t up for jumping, not with the raging hangover he found himself with.

Luther stopped Diego’s attack without effort. “What’s going on with you, Diego?”

Five took a step forward once again as he noticed the vigilante’s pale complexion and his trembling hands.

As soon as their eyes met, Diego’s gaze turned to steel and he grumbled lowly under his breath.

“It seemed our brother has been pretty busy in the past days. The shop? The diner? All him.”

Luther turned to him, his eyes questioning but Five remained silent waiting for Diego to finish.

“Now your buddies killed my friend. K-Klaus is still missing. And I…” the vigilante bit his lip, stopping himself mid-sentence to punch the wall violently.

“Who are they, Five?” Luther asked, trying to get control of the situation.

“They worked for my former employer. They’re the best of the best. Well, apart from me.” He turned to where Diego was still panting. “I’m sorry for your friend. As for Klaus, I know where he is.”

Diego finally looked at him with something different than hatred and Five quickly explained to his brothers what happened during his time in the Apocalypse, how he found them all dead in the debris and his time spent working as a temporal assassin.

When he told of Klaus time travelling to Vietnam Diego visibly stiffened, the confusion altering his features throughout his confession turned immediately in poorly hidden concern for the medium.

“Klaus is either still in Vietnam or he’s just come back from it. He will still have the briefcase with him and right now we _need_ it. Hazel and Cha Cha will want it back as well so they’ll be looking for him, we need to get to him first.” Five concluded. “Where would he go to find refuge?”

“Me.” Diego said, without hesitation.

Both Luther and Five looked at him a bit dumbfounded, and the boy wondered how these two morons could still be this clueless about their bonding.

“Or the Academy. If he wants a bath.” Diego added mumbling, avoiding their gazes with an embarrassed blush.

“I think we should look for him in the Academy. Hazel and Cha Cha have already been there and are more likely to look for him there. If Klaus were to come here then he would be safe from them in any case.” Five reasoned.

“Shouldn’t one of us stay here just in case?” Luther suggested and looked between the two of them, but before he could add anything else Diego piped up.

“You stay here, Luther. I have unfished business with those two bastards.”

“If Hazel and Cha Cha are looking for him, then we need as much strength as we can get.” The boy retorted, but Diego was already marching towards the door, ignoring Luther’s protests at being left behind.

“I thought you were the best of the best.” The vigilante mocked him as they went out in the streets.

“I am.” Five countered “But I usually don’t have to look out for anyone other than myself.”

Diego and Five scoured every street leading to the Academy, the boy’s legs shaking with the need to just space jump and be quicker however he refrained, figuring he would needed all his strength if they wanted a fighting chance against Hazel and Cha Cha.

As they turned the corner of an abandoned building, probably a crack house, Five stopped hearing strange noises coming from inside.

He was about to dismiss them, when he heard a very familiar voice yelling.

“SUCK IT, FUCKERS!”

Diego was the first to act, running in the direction of Klaus’ voice with desperation clear in his face, while Five blinked himself directly in the room where the yell had come from and his blood froze when he looked at the scene.

Klaus had somehow managed to steal Hazel’s gun and was pointing it at the briefcase while Cha Cha had her own gun resting on his brother’s temple.

Five didn’t stop to think.

He blinked again right next to the medium, pushing Cha Cha’s gun away from Klaus before it could do any damage and forcefully shoved Klaus away from the hitwoman with as much strength as he had in his thirteen years old body.

Apparently it was enough to make Klaus fall a good few feet behind Five with a small groan and while the briefcase was still gripped tight in his hand, the gun he was holding in the other fell and a shot erupted from it, embedding the bullet through the wall.

Cha Cha was good at hand-to-hand combat but she couldn’t beat Five, not with his power, however the boy was slightly distracted by Hazel striding menacingly towards Klaus.

Just as Cha Cha tried to tackle him with a vicious kick to his leg, his brother fumbled to reach the gun he had stolen from Hazel, finally pointing it towards the huge hitman before he could get too close, but with horror he realized it didn’t have any more shots.

Five needed to finish Cha Cha fast to help him.

Without wasting a second more, he jumped behind her assessing a well-aimed punch to her side that had her doubled over and with a quick move he dislocated her shoulder out its socket, pushing her to the ground effortlessly.

In that moment, Diego jumped through the door and without a hint of hesitation threw a knife in Cha Cha’s already injured shoulder and another in Hazel’s back making him stumble with a surprised scream.

Diego attacked him with all his might, putting himself between Klaus and the man.

Five grinned, finally concentrating solely on Cha Cha, jumping away from her hits and shooting punches at her ribs, her leg, her injured shoulder. In a few minutes he had her on the ground, but he collapsed as well as she hit him, pushing him with a powerful kick.

He absorbed the impact and jumped away before she could do much more. He was getting too old for this.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Diego hit the ground with a groan. Hazel raised his hand in a punch to take his brother out completely, but before Five could move to help him Klaus did the worst thing he could have done.

He smashed the briefcase on Hazel’s head, making him fall on his knees and kept on hitting his back with it until sizzles of energy came out of the briefcase as his brother mercilessly destroyed the object.

Both Cha Cha and Five screamed for him to stop but then-

Time froze.

Cha Cha was immobile, her mouth open in a silent shout. His brothers were both unnaturally motionless, stuck in half movements: Klaus with the broken briefcase high in the air, ready to strike again the unmoving Hazel, while Diego’s proud smile was immortalized in a creepy live-picture for Five to see.

“Neat trick, isn’t it?”

Her voice was like ice in his veins.

When he turned The Handler was there, with her black leather coat and her weird hat and red lips. She smiled sweetly.

“Hello, Five.”

He walked towards her, trying to hide how much he was buzzing to do the exact opposite.

“I have to say, you really threw us off the scent with your age regression trick.”

“Well. I can’t take credit, it was just a miscalculation.”

“Still. Even with the miscalculations, you have a pretty powerful gift.”

He didn’t answer, locking his jaw and trying to ignore the way her eyes turned hungry when she spoke. However, she took his silence as an invitation to continue.

“You know, your efforts are futile.”

Five’s hand clenched in his pocket, his pride stinging as his instincts telling him to kill her now and suffer the consequences later.

“I already told you, you cannot escape me.” she sing-sang.

“We’ll see about that.”

“Five, this dream of yours to summon your family to stop the Apocalypse is childish and destined to fail, though we admire your initiative and your ambition.”

He scanned every movement she made, waiting for the inevitable attack, her words hardly registering in his mind until her grinning lips turned into a flat line.

“That’s why we want to offer you a new position at management.”

What?

“What?”

“You’d work in the home office, away from the correction department. You’ll have the best pensi-“

“I don’t care about that. What is it you really want from me?”

Her eyes turned to stone as she looked at him like someone would a meal.

“We have the technology to return you to your real body. Reverse the process of age regression.”

He stopped, eyes falling on the ground briefly before returning to her again. He cursed himself for letting her see his hesitation, the smile reaching her dead eyes glinting with something he couldn’t comprehend.

“You can’t be happy like this.” She took a step towards him and whispered amiably “The age regression certainly isn’t helping your bond.”

“I’m not looking to restore my bond.”

“Oh, Five, that’s just not true. Everyone is.”

Five should have heard all the warning bells that told him _no, bad idea, kill her and take your family away, take Vanya away_ , but he ignored them.

He looked at The Handler and thought that maybe she really would have all the solutions he needed to make his bond work, to put an end to the silence in his soul.

He looked at The Handler and knew immediately that she was right.

He would never escape her.

* * *

**1955 – The Commission’s Headquarters**

_The Handler entered her office._

_All was working out as it should. She had just come back from showing Five around the management area, leaving him with a good challenge to keep him occupied on his first day._

_Soon she would strike._

_“Are you sure you can trust him?” the girl asked as soon as The Handler closed the door._

_“Dear, I don’t trust him at all. I need him here. If we have him then we can get to the girl.”_

_“But when will I come in?”_

_“Later.” She waved her hand in the air “We need to take out Number Five first. With him playing guard dog we will never have a chance to get you close to the others.”_

_“How long do I have to wait?” the girl huffed, making a show of her irritation._

_The Handler sat at her desk, a smile playing on her lips as she stroked the heavy folder with her fingers._

_“A bit more, dear. I want to see Five suffer first.”_

* * *

**March 16, 2019 – The Academy**

Klaus let go of the briefcase, now completely destroyed and fell forward, looking around the room desperately.

Five, Hazel and Cha Cha had disappeared.

“Klaus” Diego called him breathless, and Klaus felt like crying.

“Dee… Diego” he crawled towards him as Diego’s gaze snapped up to him “Are you okay?”

Diego fling himself to him, holding him tight against his chest in a bone breaking hug. Klaus hid his head against his shoulder and sobbed loudly, feeling like he could finally breathe again.

“You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay”

Diego kept repeating over and over, his hands moving from his back to his arms, then resting on each of his cheeks, raising his head so he could look him in the eyes.

Klaus saw tears in his brothers’ pale face and he tried hard not to burst into more sobs.

“Fuck” Diego finally said and crushed him once again in his arms.

Klaus let himself be manhandled by his not so delicate brother, bathing in the affection and feeling the void in his bond flare in pain, as if it was trying to wake up again but couldn’t.

“Five’s gone too.” The medium mumbled against Diego’s sweater “We should look for him.”

“Yeah” Diego sighed against him “But he could be anywhere right now and you’re injured.”

Klaus tried to protest but all that came out of him was a long dragged out whine.

“I’m taking you to the Academy and patch you up.”

“Can’t we go to your place?”

“No, bro. You need an actual infirmary, not just a first aid kit.”

Klaus hummed, sagging more against Diego. Now that all the adrenaline from the fight was falling away, he started feeling the aches deep in his bones, the exhaustion and the need to just close his eyes.

And Diego was so warm and felt so safe against him.

“Hey. Eyes open.” Diego said sternly, lifting him by his shoulders.

Klaus hummed, trying hard to do as he was told even if his head felt like it had been run over by a truck.

When Diego let go of him to stand up and retrieve his knives, Klaus swayed from where he was sitting, his whole body trembling nonstop. 

_Right_. He was still basically naked, the dirty towel being the only thing covering him.

Diego took off his sweater helping him putting it on without a word, warmth and a scent that was _Diegoandsafeandwarm_ surrounding him immediately. His eyes closed again against his will.

“No falling asleep, Klaus. You’re concussed.”

“Huh?”

Registering what his brother was saying was getting more and more difficult, especially with how much the room was spinning.

Suddenly he was lifted on his feet and, uncapable of holding his weight his legs caved under him.

“No, no, no.” Diego said, catching him before he could fall on the ground. “There we go.”

His brother wound his arm around his back and the other on his knees, lifting him effortlessly. Had Klaus been a bit more himself he would have had problems keeping his blood from flowing downwards at the show of strength, as it was Klaus really couldn’t tell up from down anyway so he just enjoyed the feeling of warm arms holding him together and filling the void that was blaring in his chest.

He never wanted to leave the kind embrace. It was the first time he felt relief since his bond was severed.

As Diego walked away from the abandoned building a small echo of care and worry pervaded his senses. But it wasn’t coming from him.

_Weird._ He thought, burying his head in Diego’s neck. _I shouldn’t be feeling anything through the bond._

But before any doubt could spring in his mind, his eyes closed and darkness enveloped him.

The first thing he felt when he woke up was pain.

Everywhere.

From the shrieking migraine that made it difficult to think clearly to the stinging sensation on his left foot. He felt like his whole body had been under a train in rush hour, stepped on and tossed over and over and over.

However, it wasn’t his body that hurt the most.

His eyes watered as he found himself mourning once again. Mourning someone he had only started to know.

Was his soulmate really gone?

He opened his eyes and found himself on Diego’s bed in the Academy. Ben hovered close, concerned, and the medium wondered vaguely if it was best to send him away and spare him from this pitying moment until he was a little bit better, but decided to be selfish once again: he needed the comfort that only Ben’s presence provided.

“Hey.”

Klaus hummed in return, longingly eyeing the glass full of water that Diego had left on the bedside table but the very thought of lifting his arms had him groaning.

“How are you feeling?”

“Just” he clicked his tongue, wishing intensely for a pill “Amazingly.”

Ben looked at him with concern and started talking, but Klaus didn’t want to listen.

He let his mind cloud over and time became unimportant. His body was starting to feel foreign and far away, the aches and the wounds not really there anymore as his mind wandered over creepy masks, guns and sad smiles.

Fear invaded him. Was he ever going to really feel again?

Suddenly the ache of emptiness blaring in his chest made itself known once more, not it had really ever gone away, but Klaus had concentrated on it a little too much apparently and now he was alone, alone, alone, alone. No hope of finding them, of knowing them, of feeling them.

Just when he was about to learn their name.

When he was being tortured, he had felt his soulmate writing on his arm again and again, but the ropes prevented him from reading. It had been the worst part of the torture.

“Klaus!” Ben’s voice brought him back to the present. “You’re scaring me. What happened to you?”

He closed his eyes at the light coming from the corridor, ignoring Ben’s question.

“Diego’s already gone looking for Five?”

“Are you kidding?”

The medium opened his eyes again confused.

“Klaus, he hasn’t left this room since he brought you here.”

“Oh.”

“Get this, he even got _Luther_ to search for Five”

“No. Way.” Klaus gasped “You’re lying.”

There was no way Diego would ever pass a mission of any kind to Luther in favour of spending his time sitting by a bed. That was just impossible.

“Not at all. He’s just gone to the infirmary to get something for your fever.”

Klaus hummed, a small smile forming on his lips without his permission.

He saw ghost brother’s grin crack slightly and become a little more strained.

“What?”

“Well. He’s… I don’t know. Something must have happened. He didn’t look good.”

Klaus frowned, gasping for a moment as he felt a strong pang of pain and void coming from his bond. He lifted his hand to his chest, trying to catch his breath and ignoring Ben’s worried eyes.

“You’re awake.” Diego’s voice filled the room and somehow the pain in Klaus’ soul eased a bit.

The vigilante gave him some cold medicine and helped him with his glass of water, dipping the mattress as he sat by him. Ben wiggled his eyebrows like the dork he was and disappeared through the wall.

“You look like shit.” Diego stated bluntly, his hands cradling Klaus’ face to check his head injury.

The medium pouted, taking advantage of their proximity to observe his brother in return. He noticed the paleness on his face, the dark bruises under his eyes and how his gaze was just… empty.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, refusing to drink any more water when he was handed the glass again.

Diego assessed him with a hard look, scoffing at the question.

“What’s wrong? I thought you were dead. When I didn’t find you at motel, I was sure I had to look for a body in an alley. I…”

The vigilante turned away from him, sniffling wetly.

“What? You looked for me?”

“Of course I did, dumbass.” His gaze snapped back to him, big teary eyes trained on his own “They kidnapped you, right? The masked bastards.”

Klaus nodded, incapable of saying anything more as he felt his eyes well up again. His bond was misbehaving the most horrible way, tingling with a faint hope and then crushing once again into nothingness.

It hurt. It didn’t feel natural.

“I’m going to kill them.” Diego growled, fists clenching.

Diego’s whole frame was trembling uncontrollably. Something had definitely happened to him.

Klaus sighed and rested his back against the pillow, wishing hard for something that would take him far away from this situation.

“If you’re okay here then I’m going to find those bastards and make them regret the day they were born.”

Klaus nodded tiredly, having already expected that his brother wanted to get back in the action as soon as possible. He tried to hide how scared he was at being left alone to crumble in his misery; after all he had hoped with all his being that Diego could make up a little space for cuddles in his busy vengeance schedule, because Klaus really needed to fill up the void inside of him somehow and Diego had been the closest thing he felt to being warm since his bond was severed.

He turned away from his brother when he wasn’t able to hold back the tears and stop his wobbling lip, but there weren’t many places to hide when stuck to a bed.

Diego’s hands returned to his face and gently shifted it so he couldn’t avoid his gaze.

“What’s wrong, Klaus?”

The medium shook his head and closed his eyes, not able to take Diego’s worried expression. God, he was going to drink himself to next Wednesday as soon as his brother was out of the door.

Diego let out an annoyed grumble.

“Now you tell me what’s going on. The last you’ve been this silent, your jaw was wired shut. What’s bothering you?”

Klaus sighed, pushing the vigilante away with weak hands, trying to get up. Not happy with this course of action, Diego pushed him back down.

“Klaus!”

“I lost someone, okay?” Klaus exploded, the lump in his throat getting bigger.

His brother deflated, thousand questions playing in his eyes.

“I’m sorry.”

They remained silent for a while, Klaus finally looked up to Diego and gasped when he saw him silently crying, eyes screwed shut. The medium sat up on the bed hugging him tightly, letting Diego’s head fall on his chest.

“Diego, what…?”

Diego breathed deeply through his nose. “My soulmate died. Patch died.”

Klaus took in that information with a gulp. “Patch… the lady cop?”

“The two bastards shot her. I’m happy they didn’t get to you too.”

Klaus smiled sadly at his brother, lost on what to do.

He really had hoped that he would get to meet Diego’s soulmate on happy circumstances.

His brother never talked about them, he hadn’t even known it was a woman until now. Diego must have discovered it during his time at the police academy.

He was happy that he had found her and had at least the chance to spend some time with her, but he felt a red deep anger at the thought that the two assassins had took that happiness away from him.

Klaus had never liked fighting, but now he finally understood what it was like to be so angry about someone to want to take revenge for them. The very thought that his Diego was feeling as empty as _he_ was feeling in that moment was unimaginable to him and made him downright furious.

“I’m so sorry, Dee” he mumbled, raising the blankets in a silent invitation.

He didn’t expect Diego to take it. He knew that all his brother needed was to go out and take his revenge.

But to his surprise Diego climbed into the bed without so much as a second thought and they entangled in a hug.

Klaus found himself encircled in his brother’s arms, his face buried between his neck and shoulder, the perfect little spot that seemed carved for him.

Yes, he really could breathe easier with Diego around.

His fingers drew delicate patterns along the back of the vigilante’s neck and he felt Diego’s sturdy body slowly relax more and more against his.

Diego’s forehead fell on his and they looked at each other softly.

“I’m so glad you’re safe.” His brother whispered and Klaus could feel his breath on his lips.

He wondered why the pain in his bond fell silent when he was this close to him.

He wondered why Diego looked at him with love clear in his eyes when he had just lost a soulmate.

He wondered why closing the distance between them looked so easy and right.

It was a pull on both sides, like they were a magnet and being together, touching was inevitable.

They both wanted it. They both needed it.

And when they kissed, they forgot why they shouldn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think! :3 Next chapter will be up next week, and we'll get to know more about The Handler's plan for the Hargreeves but also we'll have some revelations from Reginald Hargreeves' past experiments.


	6. The Day That Wasn't

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lot of secrets are revealed but only some of them will survive the change in the timeline.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again!
> 
> Just a few notes before the chapter:  
> I'm afraid the rythm of this one is a bit slow... sorry for that! I rewrote it many times but I feel like it had to be like this. 
> 
> I'm also sorry if Klaus seems a bit too OOC in this, I tried to wirte him as in character as possible, but - as you'll see in the next chapter too - he's very sick and A LOT of things are happening to him, so he's also quite confused. 
> 
> Let me know what you think!

**1955 – The Commission’s Headquarters**

Five was wrapped around her perfectly manicured fingers. He didn’t like it one bit.

But if there was one thing that Five was exceptional at, it was adapting.

_Adopt, adapt and improve,_ as his father would have once said.

That’s exactly what Five had done for all his life and that’s what he was going to do now, even if he was literally stuck in the enemy’s lair.

When Five had accepted the deal with The Handler, he knew he was acting out of desperation. If only Klaus hadn’t broken the suitcase, then all would have been easier. But easy was never part of Five’s life.

He was going to make the most out of this impossible situation.

He didn’t trust a word that came out of The Handler, from her offering him this new position in the Commission to the promise of not sending Hazel and Cha Cha back to finish his siblings.

He looked at The Handler and all his instincts kept going off.

As a matter of fact, despite all her talk about her admiration for him and his apparently extremely successful future career in the Commission, Five knew there was more.

He could see the insatiable hunger in her eyes.

A hunger that he knew all too well, that of an assassin.

But there was also something else, something that he himself had never been interested in but was subjected to since his very birth.

She had the same hunger for power that Reginald Hargreeves had.

The main problem was that she had the whole of time at her disposal.

He hated to admit that he was deeply scared of her. The earlier he could kill her, the better.

However, this time he _wanted_ to wait.

The sole possibility that the Commission could build his old body for him was enough to make him hesitate, to make him question and hope. All rationality and logic were pointing in the other direction, but the emptiness inside of him was screaming at him to put his bond first, to put _Vanya_ first.

But there won’t be a Vanya if the Apocalypse was going to take place.

He knew painfully well that he couldn’t afford to think of his bond in that moment. It wasn’t the priority. Not when he was the only person in the world capable of stopping the Apocalypse. Saving his family. Saving Vanya.

So even if all of him wanted to wait and believe that his bond could be awakened again, he couldn’t.

That’s why, as The Handler showed him around the offices presenting him to the personnel, he immediately formed a plan on how to get the Apocalypse file from Dot, all the while absorbing as many information from this place as possible.

He was going to do this his own way.

* * *

**March 16, 2019 – The Academy**

Klaus was soft.

His lips, his hair, his skin, his eyes.

Soft.

Their lips were moving gently against one another, afraid and hesitant, perfectly aware that what they were doing could jeopardize the balance of comfort and safety they had built around one another during all these years.

They had so much to lose.

Yet, Diego couldn’t bring himself to stop.

His eyes closed against his will as he tasted Klaus slowly, thoroughly, losing himself in the sensations that his brother brought with his delicate movements and careful caresses.

Time stopped, the Academy disappeared and their problems were far away as Diego moved closer to Klaus, the rustlings of the sheets beneath him were the only sound of the distant reality.

But right there, right in that moment there was only the two of them, as one.

Klaus’ hand rested on his jaw, his thumb delicately going back and forth on his skin while his other hand was thrown over his waist, lazily drawing circles on his hip and Diego wondered if someone had ever touched him this carefully, like he could break at the merest pressure.

His soul was silent. There was no pain, no screaming, no suffering. His whole being was alert, like it was waiting for something, but he had no idea what it was.

He clenched his eyes shut, trying to enjoy the calm that invaded his soul through Klaus’ gentle touches.

He wanted to bury himself even more deeply in that safety, in that small corner of heaven that was Klaus.

Diego’s mouth kept moving to a rhythm that didn’t need hurry nor thought, his brother following blindly as the minutes ticked by.

His hand was on the small of Klaus’ back, and he idly wondered how the medium would react if he moved it lower.

He didn’t, too distracted by the way Klaus moved against him, slowly trying to get as close to him as possible. He tightened his hold around Klaus’ shoulders, using the arm the medium was pillowed against to bring him closer, deepening their kiss and smiling at the suffocated moan that escaped his brother.

Diego lost the sense of time as he busied himself cataloguing all the small breathy sounds Klaus emitted and how he could draw them out of him.

He didn’t know kissing could be this perfect.

His chest tingled and he suppressed the urge to scratch it raw, knowing it wouldn’t serve anything, the itch being deep in his soul.

Klaus distracted him from his discomfort by opening his mouth in a silent invitation, tongues meeting and rolling together, their moans no longer held back as the space between their bodies became non-existent.

Chest against chest, hips on hips, legs entangled, until it was difficult to say who was Klaus and who was Diego.

_They were one._

He felt something within him flicker and he gasped in Klaus’ mouth. There was something pulling at this soul, trying to get out, insisting and uncomfortable.

He ignored it.

He didn’t want anything distracting him from this, he didn’t want to face reality – consequences – yet.

He didn’t know how long they spent kissing, breathing the same air. 

He just knew that every time they stopped and drew back, they looked each other in the eyes and all he could focus on was how right he felt in Klaus’ arms.

How right it was for Klaus to be enveloped in his embrace.

How safe it was.

And then he looked at Klaus’ soft eyes, heavy-lidded and glinting with love, he looked down at his red lips, swollen from kissing and he looked at his pliant body, relaxed in his grip, close, warm, _there_.

And he did this.

He put that expression of contentment on Klaus’ face.

Every time they would start kissing again, moving together, always meeting half-way as if they were thinking the same things.

The flicker in his chest suddenly burst into flames as he struggled to breathe. He looked in Klaus’ eyes and found his confusion reflected in the green irises. His skin prickled and burned, but the sensation was turning more and more exhilarating then painful as the seconds passed, Klaus’ skin acting like a balm on his sensitive body.

And yet, the more connected they were, the more his chest felt aflame. But they couldn’t stop.

A small doubt appeared in his mind.

He didn’t think about it.

Right now there was Klaus, there was safety, there was love. He didn’t _want_ to think. He could do it after.

After what? He didn’t know, but he didn’t stop either.

Kissing wasn’t enough anymore.

He knew it was wrong. He knew he should put a stop to it. It wasn’t the right time to do this. Not with their brother missing, Patch being dead, his bond being…

The doubt resurfaced again as Klaus’ hand moved to his neck and his chest flared.

Klaus’ emitted a soft moan that was more pain than pleasure and Diego stopped immediately.

“Please”

Klaus’ soft breathy voice was barely above a whisper, but the vigilante ignored it, pressing Klaus back against the mattress and checking that he didn’t damage any injury further.

“What hurts?” he finally asked, voice rough from all the kissing.

He knew that stopping now would break the magic reality they had built around themselves, but he didn’t want to hurt Klaus.

“No, no, no, nothing hurts, just… come back here, please.”

Klaus voice was close to a whine as he made grabby hands at Diego, desperation etched deep in his eyes despite his ridiculous gestures.

Diego sighed heavily, moving to fill Klaus’ glass of water and try to find a way to put order in his mind.

As soon as he made to stand up, his chest was filled with a boiling wave of _hurthurthurthurthurt_ just as Klaus whimpered loudly.

“Don’t, please.”

Without thinking twice, he let himself fall on the bed again and Klaus wasted no time in plastering his whole body against his, trembling uncontrollably.

The pain in his soul quietened only when he returned Klaus’ embrace, holding him in his arms trying to control his shaky breathing.

He closed his eyes, pressing Klaus against him to find as much comfort as possible because he knew very well what was going on.

It was absurd. But it was the only answer.

He stayed still, waiting for Klaus to relax and stop shivering. All the while he stroked his hair and his back with the utmost care, despite the rage bubbling inside of him.

He was angry like never before. And the only person he could blame was himself.

When Klaus was no longer tense against him, but soft and pliant as minutes ago, his fury still hadn’t dissipated and Diego hoped it never will.

He didn’t deserve forgiveness.

And he certainly didn’t deserve comfort.

Klaus raised his gaze to him and he could see in his eyes that he too had understood.

“I can hear you thinking from down here” he mumbled with a small smile.

Diego didn’t return it and hid his fear by burying himself in the other’s curls, pressing a kiss on his head.

“Klaus” he breathed, mouth inches away from the other’s skin, incapable of separating for too long.

Klaus hummed, lip trembling as if he knew what he was about to ask.

“Klaus… are you-“

Someone knocked at the door and opened it immediately after.

“Family meeting downsta- what are you doing?” Luther’s surprised voice filled the room.

Diego rolled away from Klaus, but didn’t move from the bed, a groan leaving his lips as he levelled Luther with a hard stare.

“Go. Away.” He threatened, hand twitching to reach for a knife. He had never wanted to stab Luther that bad.

“It’s important.” Luther urged, still watching them warily.

Klaus scoffed mockingly and Luther’s pout became even more pronounced.

“We’re busy.” Diego stated, teeth gritting.

“Right. Just get down with us. We need to talk about Five.”

“Klaus’ injured.”

“He’ll survive.”

“Hey!” Klaus protested dramatically just as Diego’s hand found the knife on his thigh.

Luther left the room before he could hit him, taking with him the peace they had found earlier.

Despite the jumble of feelings in his heart that verted from deep self-hatred to child-like excitement, Diego couldn’t help but be drawn to Klaus, his bond protesting at the sole idea of not being in contact with him.

“Dee” Klaus called, hand searching his from beneath the covers.

As soon as their fingers met, Diego could breathe a little easier and he could see Klaus’ relief as well.

Diego smiled hesitantly and Klaus’ eyes glinted. He scooted over and rested his head on his shoulder, moving so that he was about to return kissing him again and Diego, undeserving as he was, was too weak to stop him.

“GUYS!” Luther’s voice shouted from the corridor.

Both siblings sighed heavily, drawing away from each other slightly.

Klaus started to slowly get up from the bed, muscles trembling from the exertion and the injuries.

Diego helped him, taking advantage of this excuse to touch more of him, to hold him close.

He didn’t want to fuck this up. He couldn’t afford any other mistakes.

He wasn’t going to turn his back on him again.

“Klaus.” He called as his brother put on Diego’s sweater.

Diego tried not to get distracted at how cute he looked in his clothes, the sweater basically engulfing his too-thin frame.

“We talk about this later, yeah?”

Klaus moved towards him and Diego met him halfway, arms going on his waist to support a bit of his weight.

“’m not going anywhere, big boy.”

Diego didn’t leave Klaus’ side as they descended the stairs to reunite with their siblings.

There was no doubt anymore.

His bond was healing.

* * *

**1955 – The Commission’s Headquarters**

“Damn it.”

Five whispered under his breath, closing the door of The Handler’s office behind him.

Falling for The Handler’s trap had been way too easy but he wasn’t going to underestimate her again. Five was carefully planning his next moves as he threw away the false folder of the Apocalypse with the irritating smiley face and made sure that the bomb he had stolen from The Handler’s office wasn’t visible from his pockets.

He had been too impulsive. Of course The Handler was going to test his word. And he had fallen to the temptation of having Dot right behind him like a fool.

Knowing he could easily take her and everyone in that room _was_ tempting. But it would be too soon and too reckless.

He needed a real plan. He had to take advantage of his presence in the building to gather as much information as he could about the Apocalypse and The Handler’s motives.

Looking around to make sure that no one was watching him, he made a decision.

He was going to see for himself if what The Handler was saying was true. If she really had the possibility of getting him back to his old body.

Using the distraction provided by Dot, he wandered through the building, glad to see that the vast majority of the staff was still eating lunch.

The Commission’s headquarters were a large structure with many corridors and even more rooms. It resembled a maze, clearly built in order to confuse.

The canteen was right beside the training room for the new candidates, while the briefcase room – possibly the most important one after the switchboard – was right in the entrance hall for everyone to see. As if they could flaunt one of their most precious treasures without the need to worry about any attacks or misuses. That’s how high their security level was.

And of course, The Handler’s office, upstairs.

It was the perfect position to ensure control over the management section.

Right in front of the tube room, not too far from where Five himself worked and beside the bathroom. She could see everything.

She always did.

Five made sure to steer clear of the Switchboard Room. To think of going in there without being noticed would be madness, even for someone with his power.

He ventured in the east wing of the building, past the canteen and the training rooms, where the corridors became white instead of grey. Less people were idly standing by, and those that did were clad in white vests and protective glasses. Five made sure not to be seen by anybody.

At the end of a long corridor, Five climbed up the stairs noticing how it separated in two opposite directions, leaving him standing in front of what was basically a crossroad.

He turned right and immediately recognized the area that served as a hospital, so he jumped back to the left where he finally reached the world of time technicians.

He had to be careful. If someone reported him to The Handler he wouldn’t be able to get out without consequences.

Fortunately, the labs weren’t many and most people were still busy with their lunch in the canteen, so Five was able to wonder the halls without worrying too much about being caught.

The first room he went to was the lab where the briefcases were created.

Five tried not to linger too much, his scientific interest piqued but he didn’t have time to indulge it and he couldn’t risk snatching some of the papers for himself without being caught sneaking around.

He went through three other rooms, all dedicated to the creation of particular weapons and tube-like systems.

Five’s instinct prickled irritably when he wasn’t able to find even a line on the technology used by The Handler to stop time. Surely something that big should be written somewhere in these labs.

But he wasn’t there to find the formula to stop time at will, so he kept going.

The next room was the one he was looking for. Complicated numbers were scribbled all over the three blackboards on the walls, while a machine in the middle of the room was being built.

Five stopped abruptly, the lump in his throat making it almost impossible to breathe.

It was true.

He had a possibility. The possibility of a future. A happy future with his soulmate.

Traitorous tears sprang from his eyes without his permission and he angrily scrubbed them dry, berating himself. He couldn’t let himself wallow in _possibilities_.

Shaking his head vigorously, he looked around taking in numbers and formulas, knowing it wouldn’t take long for the techs to return to this room. He tried to go through the most complicated passages, understanding most of it and relying on his memory for what he didn’t.

While it was true that The Handler had the technology to build him a new body, it didn’t mean that it was meant for him or that she wouldn’t turn him into her puppet with the promise of a normal life.

He wouldn’t let her use his weakness at her advantage.

The muffled sounds of various voices and steps invaded the room and Five wasted no time in hurrying out as more noise came from down the corridor. He was about to jump away, unseen by the technicians when he noticed the last door in the corner of his eye.

He had less than a minute.

He pushed on the handle but it was locked. The only door to be locked.

Why?

The voices grew louder and Five didn’t have any more time to find out.

He jumped back to the corridor in front of the room where his desk was. His co-workers were huddling through the door, excitedly talking about the food they just had, unaware of his presence behind them.

Five looked around, making sure that no one else had noticed him and what he saw made him linger a bit longer on the corridor, observing until he was the last one there.

The Handler was heading towards the bathroom again, her legs quick as she opened the door, hand pressed on her bladder with a pained expression.

“Liquid diet, eh?” he mumbled, a grin slowly replacing his frown.

Could he really be this lucky? Should he really do it? It was a risk. A very big one.

But he had already decided. He needed to move. Now.

Five blinked in her empty office.

* * *

**March 16, 2019 – The Academy**

Diego was actively trying not to touch Klaus.

His resolution lasted a whole minute.

After helping him down the stairs to the couch in the living room where Allison and Luther were already waiting for them, he pointedly walked away from him to avoid any comments from their two other siblings.

During those eternally long sixty seconds, he felt Klaus’ eyes bore into his back and an intense pain flare from his chest to the rest of his body until all he could think of was the medium.

Trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, Diego sat right next to him, arm thrown on the back of the couch in a silent invite to get closer which Klaus didn’t hesitate to take, slowly sagging beside him until his head rested on his shoulder.

Relieved sighs came simultaneously from the both of them, causing Luther to narrow his eyes suspiciously at the pair, while Allison didn’t even notice, too used to them being touchy-feely with each other.

Before Luther could say anything about it, Klaus spoke up.

“So, to what do we own this little reunion?”

Diego left to Luther the hard task of recounting to the other two what Five had told them about the impeding Apocalypse.

Of course, he chose the worst way to break the news.

“The world ends in three days.”

“What?” Allison and Klaus spluttered immediately, a wave of questions coming from them, all jumbled in a confused mess of high-pitched voices and disbelief.

“I mean Five did tell me about the Apocalypse at one point, but I never thought it was this close!” Klaus croaked out.

“Do we really trust him, I mean lately he’s been a bit…” Allison made a gesture with her hands indicating Five’s insanity to which Diego couldn’t help but agree wholeheartedly.

“Our little psycho” the medium laughed, his frame shaking under Diego’s arm.

“Apparently the people who took Klaus were after Five because he was trying to keep the Apocalypse from happening.” Diego added.

“Where is Five right now?”

“We still don’t know.”

Luther and Diego took turns explaining the whole situation to the other two, until eventually they reached the hardest part of it.

“So, you’re telling me that we’ve already died fighting this thing.” Allison clarified to which both Luther and Diego nodded.

Chaos erupted as another wave of protests and questions invaded the living room.

When it came to trying to understand what they had to do now, the fragility of the family was soon put to light, especially after Vanya stomped out with his boyfriend ( _ugh?_ ) leaving them all with a bitter taste in their mouth at being compared to Hargreeves.

As soon as Luther mentioned the moon and their father’s mission, Allison looked ready to chew him out.

“I can’t believe you still think Dad is the solution.” she shouted.

“I’m just saying that there must be a reason he sent me to the moon”

Diego and Klaus snorted loudly while Allison fumed.

“What we need to do is look for Hazel and Cha Cha” Diego piped up.

“If the world is going to end in three days, then I’m sorry but I have to be with my daughter. I’m not going to chase someone that can travel through time!”

The conversation went on until it was clear that teaming up was going to be impossible and they all went their separate ways.

Allison stormed out of sight, heels clicking loudly up the stairs after throwing a furious look in Luther’s direction.

Diego followed suit with an arm around Klaus, helping him to his bedroom where he could rest. During the meeting, Klaus’ condition had worsened substantially, his trembling body covered in a thin layer of sweat as his fever had risen.

At first Diego thought that one of his injuries got infected but as he observed him another doubt sprang to mind. When he laid Klaus down on the mattress, covering him with the blankets he voiced it.

“You’re going through withdrawal, aren’t you?”

Klaus’ grin looked more like a grimace as he suppressed a bout of nausea.

“You proud?”

“You’re a moron, you know that right? Why didn’t you tell me?” Diego reprimanded him, shaking his head disbelievingly.

Klaus blew a raspberry, flapping his hands in the air.

“I’m past the worst, no biggie.”

“Yeah, I can see how you’re ‘past the worst’. Idiot.”

Diego stood up and immediately a clammy pale hand gripped his wrist with surprising strength.

“W-where are you going?”

A lump formed in his throat as he looked at his desperate green eyes.

“You need some medicine, Klaus. Won’t be a second.”

Klaus let him go wearily as Diego pushed him back on the bed and jogged to the nearest cabinet where some pills to lower the temperature were kept.

His brother sighed in relief as soon as he came back in the bedroom and Diego handed him the glass with the medicine, helping him take it.

“Feel so much better” his brother mumbled, hastily trying to get up again “I’m coming with you now.”

Diego snorted pressing him back against the mattress once again, a hand on his chest and the medium went down with a huff. He kept his hand there, pressing slightly and feeling a breeze go through him as Klaus’ whole body trembled.

“You’re not going anywhere.”

“ _Please._ ”

He couldn’t stand the despair in Klaus’ eyes, but he would never let him out of this bed in that condition. The medium gripped his shirt with all the strength he had as if it was enough to prevent him from changing his mind and going after the two assassins.

Diego covered Klaus’ hand with his, his thumb tracing slow patterns on the sweaty skin.

He had to leave. The world was at stake.

But as Klaus’ eyes bore into his soul, awakened it and soothed it, there was only one thought clear in his mind.

_Klaus first._

Diego had already made him suffer once. He knew that a lifetime wouldn’t be enough to be forgiven for what he done to him.

Nonetheless, it was time to take care of his soulmate, even if it was only for three days. So he took off his shoes and jumped on the bed, spooning Klaus against him.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered through his curls.

As he laid there waiting for Klaus’ breaths to even out, he realized that for the first time in all of his life he found somewhere he really belonged.

* * *

**1955 – The Commission’s Headquarters**

Five opened a heavy looking folder, hidden in a small drawer of The Handler’s desk.

As his eyes quickly scanned the pages, his mind short-circuited for a while.

This couldn’t be happening.

There was a whole file dedicated to his family, with all the reports taken from Reginald Hargreeves’ notes.

And if he was about to be sick reading the intimate details of his and his siblings’ powers, he couldn’t for the life of him suppress a gasp as he reached the page dedicated to Number Seven.

“Vanya” he mumbled, taking in words that were hardly registering in his mind.

_Sound, dangerous, pills…_

What had his father done to Vanya?

To think of his sister as being a risk so high that there was the need to drug her, it was unfathomable.

Five’s hand twitched holding the sheets of paper, as he seriously considered the possibility of marching through the briefcase room, going back in time again to kill his father with his own hands.

Five had always hated the man, but right now he couldn’t think of him as anything other than a monster.

He kept absorbing information from the folder and it got even worst.

There was a blueprint of a building – no location mentioned, he noticed irritably – with no less than 43 rooms… no, not rooms. Cells.

It was a prison.

As a matter of fact, the next file was a list of people, their respective power written right beside their name along with the most effective method to completely destabilize it and restrain it.

Even more sinister was the fact that beside each name was another caption on how the person could be captured, either “DEAD OR ALIVE” or “ALIVE”. The only person in the file to have a third variation was Ben, where it simply said “DEAD”.

As he reached the part of the list dedicated to his siblings, he shuddered as he read that the only two people who had to remain alive at all costs were Klaus, Allison and him.

The Handler wanted to destroy them.

No. It couldn’t be just that. Why all of his siblings were expendable apart from three? It didn’t make sense. How could she expect to capture Ben if he was already dead? Did she need his body? What for?

Who were all those other people?

What the fuck was she planning?

He was thinking fast, going through all the files, skipping the information about the other 36 strangers in order to jump straight to anything concerning his family, until he got to a section of the folder regarding bonds.

This file recorded the status of their bonds, and all of them had a big mocking red writing: _SEVERED_.

The only two who didn’t figure in the pile were Klaus and Diego whose writing was:

_STATUS OF THE BOND TO BE VERIFIED_

He heard the clicking of the heels from outside the office, so he grabbed as many papers from the folder as he could, stiffing them under his blazer and disappearing in a flash of blue.

He couldn’t stay there a minute longer as it would only take a few seconds for The Handler to understand what he had seen.

Luck was on his side as he saw Dot pass to Gloria a new instruction concerning the Apocalypse. Acting quickly, as soon as the younger woman was out of sight, Five struck the old lady on the head, taking the message from her hands in a swift move as she crumpled on the ground.

_Protect Harold Jenkins_

Five grinned. Finally, a name.

“What do you think you’re doing, Number Five?”

The Handler’s voice was eerily calm, but her eyes promised nothing but pain.

“You can’t change what’s to come” she sing-sang as she approached him.

“I won’t let you near my family.”

“Oh, Five. You already have.”

She smirked, zipping her gown down and taking out a gun. Five blinked as she fired.

“You can’t run away forever, we both know that even you have a limit. You are _mine_.”

She fired again as soon as she spotted him, but she was out of bullets.

Five smirked devilishly, throwing the grenade and looking her in the eyes for the last time.

No one touched his family.

* * *

**March 17, 2019 – The Academy**

Klaus slept almost all day and Diego didn’t dare move away from him.

Klaus returned to the world of the living when it was already dark outside.

They spent hours mapping out their bodies with their lips, bonds thrumming strongly with every touch, every caress and stolen kiss. Diego cradled Klaus’ face in his hands, moving to stand with a knee between his slightly parted legs.

The medium’s hands were travelling up and down Diego’s chest and back, leaving trails of fire in their wake, eyes trained on his.

When Klaus’ mouth moved to his neck, he lost the ability to think as he gripped his brother’s shoulders and curls, careful of his injuries.

Klaus’ hands moved under his shirt, massaging the skin of his abs, breath trembling against his neck where he was sucking and nibbling and kissing. Klaus pressed his hands against his waist, pushing his hips against his, eliciting a gasp from both of them at the sensation.

Diego buried his head in Klaus’ pale shoulder where even the faintest pressure of his teeth would leave a mark and the vigilante was left with the primal desire of marring the entire expanse of his skin, see if Klaus would let him, make him his and his only.

His mouth moved to his ear lobe, nibbling and licking as his hips grinded in rhythm with Klaus’. The medium whimpered at the friction and their eyes met again, not a hint of hesitation or question in either of them.

Klaus’ hands, his kisses, his touches were breathing life in his bond and the more they shared of themselves the more it grew, every inch of skin he touched was a flare in his chest.

The medium slowed his movements and drew away from Diego slightly, searching his eyes.

“So I guess Patch was not your soulmate?”

What. The. Fuck. He wasn’t expecting that.

“What? No!” he glared at his brother’s breathy laugh.

Diego let him snuggle against him a bit more as silence fell between them again and he tried to gather some courage to finally ask.

“And I guess my soulmate’s name is not really Eric, is it?” he mumbled after what felt like a lifetime.

Klaus green eyes found his, a tentative smile brightening his face.

“You know, I forgot I used that name.”

They both laughed incredulously, tears falling freely on their cheeks as they hugged, holding on for dear life.

_I found you, I found you, I found you, I found you_

“You’re an asshole” Klaus whimpered, voice muffled against Diego’s chest.

“I know”

“All those years…”

“I’m sorry”

Klaus sniffled, lifting his head to meet his gaze.

“I’m glad you’re not dead. But you are so going to have to make it up to me.”

“We have three days.”

“Then you better start working.”

Klaus kissed him fully as they abandoned themselves in the sheets.

Three days.

“I’ll never let you go, Klaus, I swear, I’ll nev-”

* * *

Five opened the briefcase.

He was going to save his family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Initially I really didn't want them to confess their love for one another until well into the second part of the series, but honestly? I NEED ACTION.   
> I used "the day that wasn't" as an excuse for them to confess their love, and I also changed their "Big Realization" so it comes a bit earlier in the plot. 
> 
> I also dind't plan to give this much space to Five but what can I say? Five owns my ass.   
> (Allison in this work is a lot angrier at Luther for always taking their father's side, again I will cover a bit more of that in the next chapters.)


	7. The Day That Was

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus and his other holy trinity: family drama, people he really doesn' want to meet and bad luck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo... Sorry for this late chapter, it's been a very overwhelming week for me. I'll try to post more regularly but it's not my greatest moment right now. I'll do my best!
> 
> This is quite a big chapter, full of plot!   
> Thank you for every kudos and comment, you have no idea how happy they make me!

**March 16, 2019 – The Academy**

Klaus was waiting for the moment when everything would go to shit.

He knew it would come and it would come soon because if there was one constant in his life, it would be the unfair rule that for any good thing that happened to him, there were at least two bad things waiting around the corner.

So, when Diego kissed him, Klaus was scared.

And when he felt his bond healing, Klaus got terrified.

A whirlwind of thoughts kept attacking him without pause, one after the other, confusion messing with his brain and his feelings.

He knew he had to talk to Diego as soon as possible but at the same time he felt panic rise in him at the prospect, the reality would come crashing down on him and he was afraid he would get lost in it.

There were two possibilities, both of them completely terrifying.

They would talk and understand that they weren’t bound to each other, just two lost souls forever destined to be alone and abandoned, turned insane by their grief. And he would be lost again _and empty and forgotten and so fucking alone._

Or they would talk and realize that Patch wasn’t really Diego’s soulmate, but Klaus was.

All these years, Diego had thought of his soulmate as a waste of time, a burden, a nuisance and maybe he would reject him again as he did at the very start, because, let’s be honest, who would want to be bound to him for their whole life?

Klaus himself wouldn’t want to.

_He doesn’t want me, he doesn’t want me, he doesn’t want me_.

But Diego was right there and every touch, every caress, every kiss told him otherwise. Diego’s love for him was so strong that its echo managed to get to him through their broken bond.

He could _feel_ it.

He could feel Diego’s blame, his rage, his need to make it right.

It was all too much.

They had lost so much time and Klaus had suffered for so long when the answer to his pain was right there, right in front of him.

And it _hurt_.

The relief he was feeling when he was close to Diego, the peace and calm couldn’t last. Klaus didn’t know what to do with these emotions, he never had the possibility to enjoy such things.

So he held him tight and basked in the love he was receiving, pleading Diego to stay when he moved out of reach.

When they joined Luther and Allison downstairs, Klaus wasn’t sure if his need to be sick and collapse was due to the fever addling his brain or the fact that Diego was away from him.

The only thing stopping him from throwing himself at his brother was his ever-growing dizziness and Klaus was sure it was going to get worse if he so much as stood up from the couch.

“You don’t look so hot” Ben was leaning over him with worried eyes.

Klaus managed to mumble something under his breath, eyes never leaving Diego’s pacing form, brain not there enough to verify if what he said made sense.

When Diego sat on the couch, Klaus wasted no time in resting on him and the relief he felt made the cloud in his mind seem a little less heavy, his eyes cleared and his chest less tight.

He could feel Ben observing him from the corner he was perched on and his steady gaze irked him for some reason he couldn’t quite understand. Some other ghost was howling from the staircase, its cries doing nothing to ease the confusion meddling his slow mind.

“So, to what do we own this little reunion?”

He complimented himself for the steadiness in his voice and Diego’s grip on his arm almost distracted him enough not to hear Luther’s answer.

“The world ends in three days.”

Ah.

There it was.

The universe righting itself out. Klaus could never be allowed good things after all.

He tried to participate at best in the discussion, trying to sound as much as himself as he could be while the reality of the situation was slowly sinking in, and he kept feeling worse by the minute.

His empty stomach was on a rollercoaster ride to hell, and his head was hurting so much that simply keeping his eyes open for too long was an endeavour.

Still, Klaus was a master in hiding things. He did manage to grow an addiction with Hargreeves as a caretaker: he knew what he was doing, thank you very much.

“You should probably tell them you’re sick.”

Klaus tried very hard not to hiss at his brother. He didn’t need his nagging right now.

The sound of his siblings’ voice was momentarily drowned out by a new wailing ghost, dressed as a nanny.

He vaguely recalled her from his days as a child, she always wandered very close to Vanya for some reason.

Another lost spirit wandered in the living room, a man with his head caved in, screaming obscenities about an ungrateful son. He would get along wonderfully with dear ol’ Reggie.

The two ghosts were followed by Vanya and an awkward looking man, walking side by side. Klaus squinted at the stranger trying very hard not to make any comment. But honestly? Vanya could do a lot better than this scrawny man.

Also, his queerdar was probably losing points, he would have sworn Vanya was a 100% Small Lesbian material, he was almost disappointed.

On the corner of his eye he saw how Allison reacted at seeing them together and oh, yeah!! she had _opinions_ maybe he could find time to have a little gossiping session with her later.

He tuned back into reality – he really needed to sort this distraction problem out, or maybe it was just the fever – when the nanny ghost screamed in his ear about his family being cursed and evil and honestly, he quite agreed with her though he would appreciate it if she didn’t yell it in his face.

He closed his eyes tightly, sagging a bit more against Diego and hoping that the room would just _stop_ spinning for a second.

“… And I used to think it was Dad’s fault but he’s dead. So it turns out you’re the assholes.”

“Ouch.” He whispered, sharing a look with Ben.

Being compared to their father was probably even more hurtful than the goddamn book Vanya wrote about them.

He felt Diego’s fist clench in anger as he bristled beside him. He put a hand on his, sharing a sad smile.

After Vanya stormed out, the conversation – no, wait Hargreeves didn’t do conversations - the _fight_ started again, the tension between Allison and Luther, and Luther and Diego could be cut with a knife.

Klaus would really prefer it if for once in their life the tension in the room was the fun kind and not the “I’m gonna scream until I can’t anymore and then disappear on the moon/stardom/Batcave for the next twenty years” kind of tension.

He really didn’t have the energy for this.

“We need an actual plan to fight this thing” Luther was getting angry. “I was thinking…”

“Hazel and Cha Cha. They are our target.” Diego butted in.

“Your target, maybe” Allison grumbled, hastily stirring her coffee.

A flash of blue interrupted the discussion and he felt Diego cover him from whatever the hell that was, his arms enveloping him in the blink of an eye.

Five appeared on the stool, battered and shaky, pushing himself on his feet with difficulty, looking as if he had just lost a fight with an oven.

They all stood up to help their brother, surrounding him.

Klaus didn’t do much except hover unsteadily, staggering until he had the support of the counter to stand and trying hard to ignore the painful pull in his chest when Diego left his side.

“Who did this?” Luther demanded as Five stole Allison’s coffee, downing it like it was a bottle of fancy wine.

_Don’t think about alcohol. Just don’t._

Five stepped forward turning away from them for a second, clenching some balled up sheets of paper in his fist as he pushed them in his pocket.

“Irrelevant.”

He turned back to them with a grim expression.

“So, the Apocalypse is in three days.” He announced with a steady voice.

He looked even worse standing up, but Klaus really shouldn’t judge him. He could feel his body trembling uncontrollably, black dots were marring his vision and if it wasn’t for his grip on the counter of the bar he was sure he would be lying on the ground.

“The only chance we have to save our world is, well, us.”

“The Umbrella Academy.” Luther’s dreamy voice was making his urge to throw up even more prominent.

“Yes, but with me, obviously. So if y’all don’t get your sideshow acts together and get over yourselves we’re screwed.” He scanned them with his clever eyes. “Where’s Vanya?”

“She’s with her boyfriend, somewhere” Diego’s tone was mocking, but Klaus knew he was still feeling bitter from her accusations.

He was slightly surprised to see Five’s eyes harden even more.

“Where?”

“Don’t know. It doesn’t matter anyway, it’s not like she can help us.”

Five looked sideways, opening his mouth and closing it again immediately after.

“What, Five?” Allison urged.

Five was evidently conflicted about something but made up his mind quickly.

“Later. We need to find Harold Jenkins.”

“Who the hell is Harold Jenkins?”

The voices around him turned hazy as Klaus staggered to the couch again, unable to stand upright anymore. Without the presence and the comfort of Diego’s touch he was starting to feel like he had the weight of the world resting on his shoulders.

His skin was on fire but he couldn’t stop shivering. He was sweating profusely and even sitting was out of the question.

He lied down a bit, his siblings’ conversation distant, like there was a wall between them. The ghosts that started littering the room were so many and they were making so much noise, it was difficult to tell what his brothers were saying.

A hand touched his arm, moving delicately towards his forehead and he leaned into it. The ghosts quietened and his chest felt free again as he slowly tuned in on what was being said around him, though he refused to open his eyes just yet.

“I still think this has something to do with the moon.” Luther was saying.

The hand on his arm tightened his hold a bit more as Diego replied.

“Do you really want to make the Apocalypse about you and Dad?”

“I can’t believe you still think Dad is the solution.” Allison almost shouted at the same time.

“I’m just saying that there must be a reason he sent me to the moon”

Diego and Klaus snorted loudly while Allison fumed.

“We don’t have time for this” Five piped up.

“Let’s roll.” Diego said and Klaus opened his eyes immediately.

“I’m with you” he slurred as he sat up, head spinning uncontrollably.

“Woah, no.” Diego said gripping him before he could fall “You are too sick for this. You’re staying here.”

“What? No way.” He mumbled, the thought of staying away from Diego was excruciating.

“You’d slow us down.” Five said dismissively “Get a move on, Diego.”

His brother’s answer was muffled as he was distracted by Diego lifting him on his feet before helping him upstairs.

“I’ll come with you” he protested again against his shoulder.

He just needed the room to stop spinning and he would be able to follow them, he could do it.

“No, Klaus. I’m giving you some medicine and you’ll sleep this off.” Diego was saying as he pressed him on the mattress once they arrived in his room.

“Please, Dee”

He looked at Diego in the eyes, seeing the hesitation clear in those big dark irises. Maybe he had a chance to convince him, he wasn’t _that_ sick anyway. He just needed a moment.

“You’re going through withdrawal, aren’t you?”

Fuck. Busted.

Klaus tried to look the picture of health but a bout of nausea tinging his already too pale skin green betrayed him.

“You proud?” he slurred.

“You’re a moron, you know that right? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Klaus blew a raspberry, flapping his hands in the air.

“I’m past the worst, no biggie.”

“Yeah, I can see how you’re ‘past the worst’. Idiot.”

He felt Diego move away and _nonononono_ he couldn’t leave him alone again. He circled his wrist with his hand, trying to push him back on the bed, to no avail.

“Please, Dee. I-“

“You need to take a medicine and sleep.”

Diego handed him the glass with some pills, helping him take it. He wasn’t going to let Diego go away without him.

“Feel so much better” Klaus mumbled immediately after swallowing loudly “I’m coming with you now.”

Diego snorted pressing him back against the mattress once again and the medium trembled at the contact.

“ _Please._ ” He whispered.

“I can’t let you come.” Diego said, taking his hand away and looking extremely pained as he did “I’ll be back by the time you wake up.”

Klaus tried to protest again but his eyes felt heavy.

He was fighting a battle against sleep as he felt lips on his clammy forehead and a whisper in his ear.

“Let me make this right for you.”

Klaus woke up with a gasp. _He couldn’t breathe._

His hands hovered against his chest as he wheezed, sucking in painful breaths. His lungs were working fine and yet there was something missing, he was…

Right.

His bond.

He looked at his surroundings, trying to remember how he ended up in his old bedroom and praying that the _very_ intense kissing session with Diego hadn’t been just a dream.

His eyes found Ben, sitting lazily on a chair and before he could even voice the question the ghost smiled smugly.

“Told you it was Diego.”

Klaus frowned.

Okay, then. Not a dream.

He pushed the blankets aside, noticing a glass of water with some sort of cold medicine beside it and a bucket right next to the bed.

Klaus sat up glad to see that at least the dizziness had gone away for the moment.

“Yeah, yeah, good ghostie.” He slurred as he got on his feet “Now tell me where he is.”

Ben closed his book loudly assessing him with his _Are you kidding me now?_ look, which Klaus was quite familiar with.

“You sure you should be going? You’re still quite sick.”

And Klaus did feel sick.

But right now the only thing he needed was to soothe the pain in his soul and to get some answers from a certain missing vigilante. And possibly a kiss or two.

“I’ll feel better when I’m with him.”

With slightly trembling legs, the medium opened the door.

“Can’t you find him through the bond?”

Klaus giggled bitterly at that.

“Yeah, tiny problem there… the bond is quite severed now, isn’t it?”

He didn’t turn to look at Ben and at the pity he was sure he would find in his eyes, he really didn’t need it, but he was surprised when his brother spoke up next with something useful (finally!).

“I don’t know where they are, really. But Allison talked with Luther before going out, so maybe he knows where they were headed.”

“Great.”

* * *

**1955 – The Commission’s Headquarters**

“Out.”

As soon as the skinny girl opened the door, The Handler’s croaky voice broke the silence of the room and the doctor who had been dabbing a foul-smelling cream on the woman’s scalded skin, hurried away without question.

The girl walked to her mother’s bedside and took a long look at her wounds, her frown deepening beyond measure.

“Next time we see him, he’s dead.” she finally stated in a heavily accented voice.

“Oh, Lila dear. His time _will_ come, but now… have you brought what I asked?”

The girl took out a paper filled with numbers and a few notes.

“Are you sure this will work?”

Lila couldn’t keep the doubt out of her voice as she looked at her mother laid on the bed.

“Five has too much information now. We have to use our new toy.”

Lila’s eyes glinted in excitement.

“What do I need to do?”

The Handler smiled sweetly, moving her finger on the paper.

“You? Nothing. It’s not your time yet. This is just a test to see if it works.”

Lila frowned, trying to hide how disappointed she was.

“What if it doesn’t?”

“Then we’ll work with who remains. In any case, we only need _one_ of the seven to survive.”

The girl hummed thoughtfully, before speaking again without raising her gaze.

“I just want to make sure that I will get what you promised.”

The Handler smiled amiably and pointed to the seven numbers on the paper.

“Whoever you want, darling.”

Dark eyes scanned the figures and once again never failed to disappoint her as she pointed with certainty.

“Him.”

“Perfect.” She preened “Now that that’s out of the way, we’ll start the show, shall we?”

* * *

**March 16, 2019 – The Academy**

Klaus had seen Luther angry many times before.

He had seen him at his weakest, injured and bloodied after a fight gone awry.

He had seen his brother cry and scream like a wounded animal when Ben died.

He had seen the despair and resignation cloud his eyes ever since he had forfeited his bond to Allison.

But he had never once seen him as desperate as he was in that moment, lost amongst unopened reports in their Dad’s office, kneeled on the ground like a child in front of Pogo, clutching some papers in his hand and shouting as if he was on fire.

“What the hell is going on?” Klaus asked, almost unheard.

But Luther turned to him, eyes red in anguish and betrayal, tears streaming down his face. Klaus looked at the bags more closely.

“Oh no… are these…”

“He never even opened them” Luther cried “But it’s not just that.”

He threw the papers in his gigantic hand at Pogo, who remained still as a statue watching the sheets scattered on the ground.

“WHY, POGO?” Luther screamed again.

“Your father thought it would be best if…”

“Read them, Klaus.” Luther interrupted him, voice trembling with rage as he stood up and headed towards the door.

Klaus tried to stop him, which was as effective as trying to swim up a waterfall.

“No, look whatever it is, maybe you should calm down and we’ll find a solution.”

“NO, THERE IS NO SOLUTION” Luther yelled from the corridor.

“Klaus, you really should read this. Fuck.” Ben whispered, dark eyes scanning the documents at Pogo’s feet.

Klaus snatched the papers before Pogo could take them away from him, scared at his brother’s ice-cold face.

“Master Klaus-“ Pogo tried, but the medium didn’t listen, eyes scanning the words.

His heart stopped.

“Dad knew?” Klaus whispered. “He knew all along who our soulmates were?”

The document was a yearly survey of Hargreeves’ progressions on his experiments on them.

They were barely three years old and their father had already hypothesized with the maximum precision the identity of the siblings’ soulmates.

Luther and Allison.

Diego and him.

Five and Vanya.

Ben and… there was an address and _Potential Number Eight_ written beside it.

Melodie. Ben’s soulmate.

She had powers, just like the rest of them.

Klaus kept reading avidly, learning that his father tried to bribe Melodie’s family for years to no avail and eventually gave up on his attempts to ~~buy~~ adopt her.

His resignation was also due to the fact that her power wasn’t worth the effort because of its similarity to Luther’s.

“Your father found out that there is a deep connection between your powers and your bonds. All the children born with powers like you, are bound to each other.” Pogo was trying to excuse himself “Master Hargreeves was studying this connection. The experiments he did were meant to unleash your full potentiality…”

Klaus tore his eyes away from the documents, disgusted.

“How can you defend him? How could you help him with this?”

Pogo’s gaze went to the ground and the medium realized it wouldn’t do to waste time with him. He picked up the rest of the documents, sure that there were many other secrets that his father had kept hidden from them.

“Klaus, you should check on Luther.” Ben mused through gritted teeth, eyes trained on his soulmate’s address.

The medium felt his heart clench in his chest at the forlorn expression on his brother’s face, another surge of anger at his father and Pogo invading him.

He followed the sounds of glass being smashed and found Luther in the living room, going through all the bottles in the bar until his eyes were slightly unfocused and his breath heavy with the smell of alcohol.

“He used my bond against me.” Luther seethed, throwing away a fancy looking bottle of scotch.

“Hey hey calm down, Lu” Klaus tried, unsure what to do.

“Bastard. My whole life. I gave Allison away.”

Klaus hesitantly approached him, getting him to seat down on the couch, away from the remaining bottles of alcohol.

Luther rested his head on his shoulder, sobbing uncontrollably, and Klaus awkwardly patted his enormous shoulder, at loss of what to do or say.

“He told me he had to transform me because I was about to die.” he slurred “But the records say that Grace had already cured me not long after I got back from the mission. He didn’t need to turn me into this.”

“Why would he do it then?”

“It was all a lie, he injected me with the purpose to severe the bond.”

“W-what?” Klaus whispered, looking at Ben terrified by the revelation.

“T-that’s what it says here” Luther pointed to the papers Klaus was still holding in his hand “I don’t know _why_ he did it.”

Klaus let go of the documents as if they had burnt him, scared of the truths he would find there.

“I think he did it because my bond was holding me back. I was this close to finally get out of here and find Allison to make things right. This close. He must have found out, he must have…”

Luther exploded into sobbing again, his weight almost crushing Klaus.

“Dad was such a bastard, I can’t believe it.”

“Summon him.”

“What?”

“I want to talk to him. Summon him NOW!”

“Hey come on, stop that, stop that.” Klaus tried to appease him as his brother got up quickly from the couch “You know I can’t do it. I’ve already tried, but he just won’t…”

“Summon him, Klaus!”

Luther grabbed him by the neck and the medium struggled against his hold, his lungs crying out at the lack of air.

“Luther” he gasped “I can’t… I can’t. Stop!”

Luther threw him across the room angrily and he fell to the ground like a ragdoll, vaguely aware of his brother storming out of the room.

That wasn’t going to end well, was it?

“This is pointless.”

It felt like the thousandth complaint since they had gone out of the Academy. His conscience, otherwise known as Ben The Ever Suffering Ghost, kept reminding him that Luther shouldn’t be out alone in his state.

Klaus knew that he should care for him like a good brother, but it wasn’t like Luther would accept his care.

He never had. And he really didn’t want to be choked again.

Choking is fun only in a certain context.

“We’ve looked everywhere, Beeeeeen” the medium protested again, dragging his tired limbs around.

“No, we haven’t. Let’s check that place on the docks.”

Klaus groaned loudly.

He didn’t want to think about Luther. Far from the eyes far from the heart or whatever.

Sure, he felt sorry and angry for him but there wasn’t much he could do. Allison would be able to help him a lot more than he ever could.

Plus, Klaus _needed_ to find Diego.

They had to sort this situation out. The emptiness in his chest was blaring and to think that his medicine was out there was making him go mad.

Klaus needed to discuss their soulmate status, slap Diego for the trouble he gave him during all these years, probably slap himself as well for his stupidity and kiss him senseless.

Not necessarily in that order.

The docks were cold and unwelcoming as always, but this time he was sober enough to notice things he never did when he was high as a kite.

Ghosts were everywhere here, littering every corner and screaming at the top of their lungs. There were even a few spirits he thought he knew, probably fellow junkies and the occasional dealers.

They quickly checked the rave in the abandoned building, but no huge Number One was there.

That’s it. Klaus was going to draw the line here, conscience be damned.

“Look, Ben. I’ve tried, okay? He’s probably having fun somewhere, he needs it. And I need to go to Diego now.”

Ben stopped in his tracks, eyes darkening with disappointment.

“You’re kidding, I hope.”

“No, I’m not. I’m tired, okay? What would you do in my place?”

“I wouldn’t abandon Luther!”

“Yeah, you would!”

He didn’t usually scream at Ben, no matter how insistent and cruel he got with his nagging. However, Klaus couldn’t handle the tension anymore. If the world was going to end in three days then he wanted to spend what little he had left with his soulmate, and Ben should be able to understand that.

The ghost stood in his way, jaw set and eyes determined. Klaus knew what was coming now, the scolding of the century.

“I get that you need Diego right now.” his brother sighed, trying to meet his gaze “I get it. But Luther is alone and in danger, I thought you of all people would know how that feels.”

“Yeah, but-“

“No, Klaus. If you were in danger there is nothing in the world Luther wouldn’t do to save your scrawny junkie ass.”

He hated when Ben was right. Alright then.

He kept searching.

After hours spent walking aimlessly around the city, complaining and bickering, they finally found him.

Klaus had to admit that if he didn’t know the reason of Luther’s breakdown, he would be having a field day mocking and teasing him. The man was making a complete fool of himself.

He wished he could enjoy the sight more.

There was a reason he was never sober for parties like this one.

Klaus hated the physical contact, the sweaty people gathering around him, pushing him and he couldn’t see the way out, he couldn’t hear a thing, his mouth was dry and his ears kept ringing.

_Let me out_.

He was sitting on the ground, eyes locked on a pill he had previously thrown away, the only reason he wasn’t holding it between his fingers was that his hands were currently busy covering his ears from the overwhelming mix of noises.

He could feel his breaths quickening. Why did he listen to Ben again? Nothing good ever happened when he listened to Ben.

Logically, he knew that the men going towards Luther with bats wouldn’t really harm his brother.

Logically, he knew that even intoxicated as he was, it would only take a swing of his arm for Luther to overpower them.

Yet, he would never be able to just stand and watch as someone threatened his family. Even if said family was Luther.

So he did the first thing that came to mind and threw himself on the angrier looking man, calling Luther to help him, the bitter side of him replaying Ben’s words in his mind.

_He would save you._

Right.

His head bashed on the concrete and he didn’t get up again.

* * *

**??? - ???**

Calm.

He had never known a calmness such as this one.

He couldn’t feel anything, not really.

He had trouble even feeling his own body.

It was like a dream, confusing but detached like he knew there wouldn’t be any real consequences to anything that happened here.

He looked around. He didn’t know this place.

It looked uneventful. A little boring, maybe.

A girl on a bike arrived, and Klaus could feel there was something weird. _She_ was something weird.

There was life coming from her, the only being alive in this grey place, and he felt that energy bouncing on him as they talked.

She pointed to a little shed.

Had he been able to feel, he would have been surprised to find what looked like a hairdressing saloon from the 60s.

He sat on the chair, looking at the pictures of the men hung on the wall.

All his brothers were there, even old Five.

His eyes lingered on Diego, and for some reason that felt far away his eyes prickled with tears.

Ben’s pictured was obscured. His chest gave a little sting at that, but it was an echo of a distant pain, and Klaus was glad that it couldn’t really hurt him anymore.

“What in God’s name took you so long?”

His breath caught.

The emotions came flooding in, the calmness swept away and in a few instants Klaus realized with overwhelming certainty that yes, he was very much still alive.

“Dad” he intoned, feeling deep within himself all the weight of that word.

“I expected my son who can conjure the dead to have brought me forth days ago.”

“Oh yeah.” Klaus fidgeted like a thirteen-year-old again “Well, you see… It’s complicated. You know, I… I tried, but-”

“You were poisoning yourself.” Hargreeves stated coldly, applying the shaving cream on his face.

“Well, what do you expect? You’d just died. I was beside myself with grief.”

“Don’t you dare try to use me as an excuse for your weakness”

“Oh right, you had nothing to do with it.” he scoffed sarcastically, immediately moving away as his father leaned in with the shaving knife close to his neck. “Ah, ah, ah, careful Dad!”

“Don’t worry, you’re already dead.” Hargreeves mocked him.

“Oh, that’s a relief.”

Klaus sagged back on the chair, knowing he should probably feel at least remorseful at the revelation.

“Not for long, of course.” His father continued, blade cold against his pale skin.

“What?”

“You’re not burdened by your bond anymore, so your power can be used to its fullest potentiality.”

“What are you talking about?”

“What did I always tell you? The bond is a liability. It prevents you from using your powers: the stronger the bond, the weakest the power and vice versa. Why do you think Number Six was never able to control his power? He was constantly nurturing his bond with that useless girl, no matter how many times I tried to weaken it.”

“What… that can’t be.” Klaus whispered, shocked at what his father was saying. “You mean… That’s why you severed Luther’s bond?”

“I wanted to sever all of your bonds. That way you would have been invincible. However, I was able to create the ‘antidote’ to the bond only when you were all gone away. Luther was the only one I could give it to.”

“You- you’re a monster”

“I just wanted you to live up to your potential. You especially. You’re my greatest disappointment Number Four. You only scratched the surface of what you’re truly capable of. But you’ll realize soon enough now that you’re severed.”

Klaus only stared at him in utter bewilderment, uncapable of fully processing what he’d been revealed.

“Now, listen to me Number Four, what I’m about to say is of the utmost importance-“

Suddenly everything around him started ringing, a strong pressure on his chest downing him and, as the figure of his father began to fade out of focus along with the hellish saloon, he realized exactly what was happening.

“No, I don’t want to go back. No no no no…”

* * *

**March 16, 2019 – The Rave**

Klaus gasped and he was immediately aware of the pain that life brought.

He looked around, spotting a wide-eyed Ben but failing to see Luther, people were starting to gather in on him again, they were all looking at him and he felt sick, sick and dirty and tired and _sick_.

He ran away.

As soon as he was out, he fell on his knees and threw up what little he had in his stomach.

He felt Ben’s presence beside him and, for the first time since the funeral, he wished desperately for his brother’s hug.

He told him everything he saw, through hiccupped words and bitter tears, knowing that he was probably the only sibling who would never for a second doubt him.

Together, they staggered back to the Academy. At his protest, Ben reasoned that Diego might already be there.

But once they entered the household, the only person they found was a wounded Five.

A lump on his throat, Klaus asked their mother what happened, where the others were.

“Diego and Allison brought him here three hours ago. Diego wanted to know where you ended up to. Silly you, you always run around each other.”

She couldn’t understand how true it was. And how it hurt.

“You should go to bed.” Ben whispered.

And Klaus did, but it was safe to say that he didn’t sleep much, waking up at the merest sound hoping to find Diego looking up at him.

When he found Pogo stalking around in the middle of the night he asked him about what his father had said.

“Your father had great plans for you.”

“He experimented on us. _You_ experimented on our bond.” He murmured.

“Master Klaus, your bonds were as exceptional as your powers. Everything your father did was with the world’s sake in mind.”

“What about us?”

Pogo looked at the ground, silent.

“There’s more, isn’t there? I just don’t get it. It doesn’t make sense. The document said that people with powers are bound to each other but Five and Vanya are soulmates and Vanya isn’t…”

“Good night, Master Klaus.”

* * *

**1955 – The Commission’s Headquarters**

The Handler marched down the Tech area, the sounds of her heels clicking rhythmically in deep contrast with the almost silent steps of the girl following her through the white corridor.

The technicians knew very well to avoid their gazes at all costs, ducking away in their labs as soon as they saw them.

The Handler stopped right in front of the last door, hand raised in the air waiting for Lila to give her the key to the laboratory. As soon as they stepped in, the girl closed the door behind them.

“Here it is.” The Handler was thrilled.

She raised a device, shaped to look like a vambrace and fitted it on her forearm like a sleeve. The machine, as soon it touched her skin, activate itself and - after bursting in an electric blue flash - turned into the colour of her complexion so that it was impossible to tell it was even there.

Lila smiled.

“So this will ignite the bomb?”

“If used correctly… yes.” The Handler mused, caressing the device. “Shouldn’t be too difficult with her, after all. Even if she’s Number Five’s soulmate, she is fairly naïve.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy holidays, everyone!

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it!  
> I will add other tags as I post the chapters so please keep an eye out for that (even though the main ones are already there). Next chapter will have Diego's POV :3
> 
> Here's my tumblr (wanderer-451.tumblr.com/)


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